


The Mikaelson-Saltzman Myth - First Season

by LucyLegacies



Series: The Mikaelson-Saltzman Myth [1]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 75,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24345166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucyLegacies/pseuds/LucyLegacies
Summary: Hope is a detective and Lizzie is a psychologist. They must work together to put bad guys behing bars at the same time ignoring their growing feelings towards each other and their "mythical" past.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman
Series: The Mikaelson-Saltzman Myth [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836859
Comments: 194
Kudos: 174





	1. Working Together

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this one. I really love crime shows and it's been some time since I was planning on writing something like this. 
> 
> I won't say a lot. I really hope you like it.

“Please. She just needs one hour with the kid.” Hope said. She was seriously thinking about begging at this point.

“Assault of an elderly man.” The captain dropped a file on the table.

“In her defense, he was a sexual predator.” Hope tried, only getting a glare from her captain.

“Arson.” He said dropping another file.

“That was actually her sister.” Hope said defensive, then “She only helped her to cover it.” To what she got another look.

“Vandalism.” He said dropping yet another file. A larger one this time.

“It was private property so it had insurance.” Hope said grimacing.

“And that makes it better how?” The captain said and then dropped a five-files pack. “Stalking.” He said and when Hope opened her mouth to try to justify it one more time, he beat her to it. “Stalking that caused five people, amongst whom is the CEO of the third biggest company of the United States, to press charges and get a restraining order against her.”

“Again, in her defense, those people are bad. They are those that do a lot of shit and just don’t go to jail because they’re rich enough to buy a free ticket.”

“Not an excuse.” He said sighing loudly. Then he picked up another file and smiled. “Now, this one is funny.” He said, his face indicating that he didn’t find anything funny. “A restraining order against _you_.” Hope winced. He looked at her, daring her to come up with a new excuse.

“She dropped it.” Hope mumbled.

“I don’t even know why the government allows her to do all this and still have a job.” He said astonished.

“Because she’s good. The best, actually, and they know it.” Hope exclaimed.

“Reading her psychological profile, I believe that the only reason they've kept her is to prevent her to go to the streets and become a serial killer.” Her captain said for the first time laughing since this conversation have started.

“That’s not true.” Hope tried but the man didn’t seem prone to listen so Hope sighed. “Look, this case is important. We don’t have time to lose and we need answers. Maybe the boy heard or knows something that can help.” Hope said hopeful.

“You’re right, agent Mikaelson. I’ll trust you on this one because it’s really important but if it turns out to be a bad decision you’ll be doing desk work for the rest of your life.” He said tired.

“Thank you, captain.” Hope said relieved. When she was leaving the office, he called her.

“Is it true that she plucked an eyeball out of someone’s face once?” He asked curious this time. Hope laughed at his question.

“Yeah, but she put it back after she was finished.” She said flashing a smile at her captain and leaving his office. She went to one of the Waiting Rooms to pick up the child and the social worker. “We can go now.” And as Hope led them to the elevator and pushed the button to the floor above, she prepared herself mentally. When the secretary saw Hope coming with a child, she grunted. Hope looked at her apologetically and made her way to the children’s room. She looked at the mirror that allowed people on the outside to see and listen what was happening on the inside and frowned when she found it empty. Hope was about to ask the secretary when the door of the break room opened. Hope smiled and kneeled in front of the boy.

“Hey, buddy, this is the pretty lady I told you about.” She said smiling at the scared little boy. He didn’t look at Hope, only at the ground like he had been doing since Hope had found him alone in the house. “She’s going to help you.” She finally looked at Lizzie. She could feel that Lizzie was angry at her but she only kneeled in front of the boy too.

“I don’t think I can help you, little boy.” Lizzie said sad. The boy didn’t look at her but Hope could see him frowning slightly. “You see, I have a rule. Everyone must be using a silly hat to get in here.” Lizzie said gravely. The boy looked at Hope’s head then; she wasn’t wearing a silly hat. Hope held out her laugh. Lizzie also noticed his look because she said “Yeah, Hope here’s not wearing a silly hat. What about we give her one?” Lizzie said whispering. Then, suddenly, she pulled a silly purple and gold hat out of- out of thin air, it looked like. Hope never quite understood how Lizzie could be so fast with her tricks that no one saw it coming. The boy also got impressed because his eyes widened a little. After placing the hat on Hope’s head making sure to apply more force than necessary, Lizzie looked back at the boy. “Now, you need a silly hat too.” Lizzie looked at him as if she were evaluating something important. Then again out of nowhere she pulled another hat, this one green with little snakes popping out of it. The boy smiled. Hope knew Lizzie would get anything from him the moment he took the hat and put it on his head. Lizzie smiled at him. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go inside this toy room and pick any toy you want and hide it? I’ll be here outside counting to twenty. When I get in, I will tell you which toy you picked and where you hid it without even looking.” Lizzie said and the boy entered the room fast to dive in the toys. When he left and Lizzie finally looked at Hope, all her happy face dropped. “You know I don’t work with these kids.” Lizzie hissed at Hope.

“Of course, you work with kids, Lizzie. You’re a child psychologist. It’s literally the job’s description.” Hope rolled her eyes.

“Wrong. I work with adults on the regular and I have _some_ patients that are kids. The normal ones, you know. The rich ones with divorced parents or kids with special needs. I don’t work with those kinds of children.” Lizzie said pointing at the boy with her chin. They both watched the boy for a few seconds from the mirror window.

“Those are the ones that need caring the most.” Hope said quietly.

“I hate you so much.” Lizzie said sighing. She waited for the boy to hide his toy and then went to the door.

“You cheated, you know.” Hope said before Lizzie entered the room.

“What?” Lizzie said confused.

“You watched which toy he picked and where he hid it.” Hope smiled. Lizzie only glared at her before closing the door on her face.

The social worker had been watching the whole interaction and Hope knew she was probably wondering if the _Mikaelson-Saltzman Myth_ was true. Hope looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

* * *

Lizzie was tired of Hope Mikaelson. She really was. The fact that Lizzie was obligated to work in the same building as her was a direct attack at her peace of mind. Hope was always doing that thing where she shows up with a sad traumatized kid for Lizzie to work with. Lizzie was not able to say no the little kids. She was not a monster; as much as people thought she was. After spending the first half hour playing with the little boy and getting his trust, Lizzie thought he was ready to talk.

“Can you tell me your name?” Lizzie said casually, not even looking at the boy while she organized little dinosaurs next to the little train rail they were playing with.

“Eli.” The boy said.

“Look at this pterosaur, Eli.” Lizzie said sitting next to the boy on the ground. “Did you know that they weren’t really dinosaurs?” Lizzie said whispering as if she was telling him a secret. “They were flying reptiles.”

“Reptiles like snakes and lizards?” They boy whispered back as if the fact of the pterosaur not being in the same class as dinosaurs was an act of treason. Lizzie almost laughed. She was also this disgusted back when she was seven and learned about that little fact.

“Exactly like snakes and lizards.” Lizzie said dead serious. “Dinosaur is just a general term for a lot of animals that each have different characteristics that range from the huge ones like the tyrannosaurus to the little ones like the hummingbird.” Lizzie said all scientific. The boy’s eyes widened.

“The hummingbird is a dinosaur?” He shouted shocked.

“I know right? I wouldn’t have guessed that either.” Lizzie said shaking her head and smiling watching the boy look at the dinosaur toys aligned in front of him with new eyes. “A lot of things are not as they seem to be.” Lizzie said quietly after some time. The boy looked at her thinking.

“I thought that my step-father liked me.” Eli said in a low voice. Lizzie nodded.

“And he didn’t?” Lizzie asked also in a low voice. Eli shook his head.

“He was mean. He…” Eli started but then looked away coughing.

“You can tell me.” Lizzie said after the boy calmed.

“He said a lot of bad words to me and mommy.”

“And where’s your mommy now, Eli?” Lizzie asked.

“She told me to hide inside the cabinet. That she would open it after he was gone.” Eli said, his eyes starting to water. “I think he made her cry because I heard her sniffing and telling him to go.”

“And did he?”

“I heard a loud noise, like when I drop something on the floor and then he was talking on the phone.”

“What did he say on the phone?” Lizzie asked careful.

“That he needed help to make someone talk.” The boy said now sobbing. “Then he went away. When I left the cabinet, mommy wasn’t there and I called the police like mommy taught me.” He hugged Lizzie crying. Lizzie held him until he stopped crying and then looked him in the eyes.

“Do you remember agent Mikaelson that brought you here?” Lizzie asked and when the boy nodded, she continued “I’m going to help her so we can find your mommy. Why don’t you stay here while I’ll go get you some juice?” Lizzie said and then boy nodded. Lizzie stood up and left the room to find Hope looking at her. “What are you not telling me?” Lizzie asked straightforward.

“Why do you think I’m not telling you something?” Hope asked frowning and glancing at the social worker on the other end of the room.

“Well, Mikaelson, I don’t know. Maybe because this is not your type of case. The FBI doesn’t work with domestic violence.” Lizzie said looking Hope in the eyes.

“I can’t tell you.” Hope said sighing. Lizzie straightened her eyes. “I can’t!” Hope shouted and then glanced again at the social worker.

“Well, I guess it’s my lunch break anyway. We can talk again when I come back.” Lizzie said turning around and entering the Break Room. She heard Hope cursing behind her and then following her inside.

“You just had a break before I came in.” Hope said accusatory.

“That’s the thing about being good, Hope, I can take as many breaks as I want and they’ll never say a word if at the end of the day my job’s done.” Lizzie said smiling.

“Your job’s not being done right now.” Hope frowned.

“I didn’t receive a formal document requesting me to examine that boy, so this is like a favor I’m doing to you. Favors are not part of my job.” Lizzie said opening the fridge and picking a juice box.

“He and his mom were under protective custody of the FBI. She’s a witness in a White-Collar crime.” Hope said after a moment.

“Not so protective since she vanished right under your noses.” Lizzie said sarcastic.

“I wasn’t the agent responsible.” Hope started defensive. “And now it’s already done, anyway. We have to focus on getting her back before the news that she was abducted is out.”

“Why do you think she was abducted and not killed?” Lizzie asked frowning. “Usually they just kill the person.”

“She hid something. They will torture her to know where.” Hope said.

“So they should’ve kidnapped the boy. It would be more effective on breaking her.” Lizzie said matter-of-factly.

“Lizzie!” Hope shouted. “Your psychopath is showing.” Hope said rolling her eyes.

“I’m just saying. You know I’m right.” Lizzie frowned. She watched as Hope thought about it.

“Maybe, but he didn’t take the boy.” Hope said and Lizzie could see her engines working to piece it together.

“Why?” Lizzie asked, a bad feeling taking over her.

“I don’t know… maybe he didn’t find him. Maybe…” Hope started but freezed when they heard the boy crying from the other room. They darted there and found the boy grasping for air.

“I can’t breathe.” He said.

“Is he asthmatic?” Lizzie asked Hope at the same time as she went to one of the rooms and took an oxygen cylinder and a mask. She came back to the boy and placed the mask on his face; his breathing a little better after a few seconds.

“I don’t know.” Hope said worried. Lizzie was about to ask Hope to check his medical records when she noticed a little bit of blood on the mask. That wasn’t an asthma attack.

“Hope.” Lizzie called calmly and when Hope looked in her eyes, Lizzie pointed at the blood. “I think I know why they didn’t take the boy.”

* * *

“They poisoned him?” Hope shouted angrily at the doctor. She winced at Hope’s loud voice.

“Keep your voice down, please. If we upset him it will only be worse.” She said.

“Is it a toxin?” Lizzie asked the doctor after glancing at Hope.

“Probably. We’re still working on finding out and treating him but the best way to do it is if the person that did it to him told us what it is so we can treat it. In most of the cases of poisoning like this, victims die because of the time it takes to find out what it is. Sometimes it’s too late.” The doctor said.

“He won’t die.” Hope said angry.

“Okay. Thank you, doctor.” Lizzie said nodding at her to leave. Hope looked at Lizzie then.

“You have to give me something to work with, Lizzie.” Hope said desperate. If finding the people that abducted his mom was the way to cure the boy, Hope needed something. Lizzie looked at her and then nodded. She entered the boy’s room. Hope’s heart broke at seeing the little boy laid on the huge hospital bed with a lot of tubes of oxygen and medicine.

“Did you find mommy?” He asked Lizzie when they came closer to the bed. Lizzie smiled at him and Hope understood what she had said before about not working with these kinds of kids. It took courage to do this.

“I’m working on it, buddy. But I’ll need your help, okay?” Lizzie said and Eli nodded. “Do you remember what else your step-dad talked about on the phone?” Hope watched as, without noticing, Lizzie traced a scar on the back of her neck. She always did that when she was nervous. Hope looked at the white line that went from the back of her left shoulder all the way to her hair.

“He said that she had two days.” The boy said after thinking for a moment. Hope looked at him as he took Lizzie’s hand. “Is it two days for mommy to be back?” He asked innocent and one more little piece of Hope’s heart was lost forever. She gulped. “She always let’s me eat three scoops of ice cream when we visit daddy.” The boy said smiling.

“Oh yeah?” Lizzie said smiling too. “That’s nice. Maybe I can go eat ice cream with you and your mommy when we bring her back, okay?” Lizzie said and the boy nodded excitedly. When they left the room, Hope looked at the social worker.

“There’s three officers on the door and a few more pretending to be patients and nurses here at the hospital. They’ll protect him. You stay with him.” She said and then went to elevator, Lizzie following close.

“Where does his father lives?” Lizzie asked.

“In the cemetery.” Hope said. “His mother takes him to visit his grave. He died when Eli was three.”

“Oh.” Lizzie glared at Hope. “What are we going to do now?” 

“WE are not going to do anything.” Hope said decisive. “I’m going to talk to the boy’s stepfather’s boss to see if he knows about something and you’ll go back to your office.” Hope said leaving the elevator and going to her car with Lizzie still following her.

“No way I will.” Lizzie said stubborn like Hope expected her to be. Hope looked at her.

“I’m not taking you with me. You’re nuts.” Hope said scolding.

“Okay.” Lizzie said stopping on her tracks and turning around to leave. Hope felt a cold enveloping her. She narrowed her eyes at Lizzie.

“What are you doing?”

“You said I couldn’t go with you so I’m leaving.” Lizzie said, the placid face of an innocent.

“And you’re not going to fight me on it?” Hope asked suspicious.

“No.” Lizzie simply said. Hope sighed relieved. She didn’t need to worry about Lizzie while trying to get Eli’s mom back.

“Thank you.” Hope said smiling at Lizzie. Lizzie smiled back and something on that smiled raised a red flag in Hope’s brain, one that she ignored, so worried she was with getting Eli and his mom to safety soon. Hope entered the car and left the parking lot, the last thing she saw before leaving it was Lizzie making a call; probably to call an uber to go back to her office.

After a talk that didn't really help much on getting information, Hope went back to Eli's house. She looked around trying to find something helpful. She thought that if the guy was threatening to kill her son, she probably had already told him where whatever she was hiding was. Hope sighed and looked around when her eyes found something. A picture of Eli and his dad when he was still alive. Something snapped inside Hope's head and she called one of the tech guys.

"Hey, can you access Lettie's GPS tracks for me? See where her cellphone was pinpointed during the last months." 

"Just a second." The woman said and Hope waited. "She didnt really get out a lot. Even before she was put on witness protection. The only places she goes are the supermarket and the cemetery. She goes an awful lot of times there, actually." Shit. The woman probably hid something there and would go there to check it regurally. Hope rolled her eyes. Why did people check on hidden things? "Funny." The woman said again after a few seconds.

“What is it?” Hope asked.

“It’s your doctor.” The woman said and Hope cursed internally.

“What did she do this time?” Hope asked.

“You told me to keep an eye on her; give you a heads-up every time she left the county. She just did.”

“We’re in the middle of an investigation. Where did she go?” Hope wondered.

“Terrence Cemetery.” She said and Hope’s blood stilled. "The same place we just talked about."

“Shit. That’s the place where Eli’s dad is buried.” She shouted. “I gotta go. I’m ten minutes from there. Send police officers.” Hope would kill Lizzie. She drove fast, her mind only thinking of the damage she would find when she got there. When she finally parked her car, she left it with her gun pointed to the other car. The guy opened the window scared.

“I’m just waiting for someone. I’m not armed.” The old man said almost pissing himself.

“Whom are you waiting for?” Hope asked, her gun still pointed at him.

“A blond. She asked me to wait here. I’m just waiting.” He said. Hope cursed Lizzie Saltzman again because, really, only her to go after a bad guy on an uber.

“Leave.” Hope told him and he didn’t wait for another command. Hope walked slowly, paying attention to her surroundings. The cemetery in itself was already creepy enough, with crypts and huge family mausoleums. The gray end of afternoon sky and the fear at the bottom of Hope’s stomach didn’t help. When they say _‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’_ that’s what they mean. If Hope had let Lizzie come with her, none of this would be happening. Hope stopped when she heard a noise coming from one of the mausoleums. She got closer and entered it looking around and finding Lizzie kneeled next to a hole. While Hope’s lungs finally breathed, Lizzie spotted her and raised her finger to her mouth in a silence sign. Hope walked closer, just now hearing the voices coming from out of the hole.

_“What is the combination_?” A male voice asked.

_“I’ll only tell you if you give me the antidote to save my son.”_ A woman said.

_“Your son will die if you wait too long.”_

“ _Then you won’t have anything to blackmail me.”_ The woman said controlled. Hope could notice an edge to her voice, but she was keeping it cool. Hope looked at Lizzie when she touched Hope’s arm.

“Cover me.” Lizzie mouthed to Hope and then stood up. Hope wanted to scream at her to don’t do anything stupid but Lizzie wasn’t looking at her and she couldn’t make noise. She watched with horror as Lizzie jumped in the hole. Hope looked as she landed right on top of the man. He screamed in pain.

“Too late, pal.” Lizzie said standing up and kicking the man’s gun away. “You had your chance to make her talk. Now that you didn’t it’s my turn to make you talk.” Lizzie said and Hope grunted. Lizzie should really stop watching crime shows just to get one-liners.

“Don’t hurt him too badly, Lizzie.” Hope screamed as she jumped in the hole and went to the man. She handcuffed him. “Go see if she needs help.” Hope hissed at Lizzie. She went to the woman.

“Are you hurt?” Lizzie asked.

“No. He poisoned my son. I need him to tell with what so I can give him an antidote.” She said shaken. Lizzie nodded and then looked at Hope. Hope grunted again.

“Let’s get out of here. The police is almost here and we can take you to the hospital where your son is.” Hope told the woman.

“But I need the antidote.” She exclaimed.

“I know. Lizzie here will get it. She’s a psychologist. She can do all that mental mumble jumble to get him to talk.” Hope said smiling. When Hope helped the woman to climb up the narrow stairs and go back up to the mausoleum, she looked at Lizzie.

“I’m going to let your son die, bitch.” The man screamed. Lizzie rolled her eyes and hit him on the mouth with his gun that she had recovered from the ground.

“That’s abuse of authority.” He said, barely understandable, spitting blood on the ground. Hope smiled at him.

“She's not authority. She’s a doctor.” Hope said grinning and climbed up the stairs hearing a bone break and the guy screaming. “Don’t torture him, Lizzie.” Hope shouted to the hole.

“I don’t need to. One of his ribs broke and cut through his left lung. If he wants me to help him, he’ll talk.” Lizzie said and Hope laughed quietly.

“Don’t let him drown on his own blood.” Hope screamed back. Five minutes later, Lizzie walked out of the mausoleum and joined Hope at the same time the police finally arrived; _always late for the action_ , Hope thought remembering Lizzie saying that a lot of times while watching a movie. “Already?” Hope asked.

“We’re still sharp on the lying thing. He believed that he would die with blood in his lungs.” Lizzie said laughing. “Call the hospital so I can tell them what to do with Eli.” Lizzie said just before the mom asked. Hope dialed the number and gave Lizzie the cellphone. While Lizzie talked, Hope looked at the mom.

“He’s going to be okay.” Hope calmed her and watched as relief and fear mixed on her face. After the ambulances arrived to bring the man to the hospital and the mom, that had a twisted ankle and a few cuts on the face, to her son, Hope was left with Lizzie. “Why would you just go without telling me, Lizzie?” She asked angry driving them back to the FBI building.

“You were being annoying. It’s not the first time I do this. You should’ve suspected when I just agreed with you.” Lizzie scowled. Hope sighed tiredly.

“My bad. I thought that you had worked on your impulse issues.” Hope said slowly. Lizzie glared at her.

“It wasn’t an impulsive decision. It was a pondered one.” Lizzie said smug. “One with 100% of success.” She flashed a smile at Hope. “Like our old missions.” Hope buffed.

“How did you know they were there?” Hope asked.

“I didn’t, actually. You know my way of getting to know people. I like to follow their steps and try to figure things out. I came here to try to connect to Eli’s mom; trying to think like her. When I got here, I found them. Apparently, she was hiding a pen-drive with information in a vault there.”

“Why didn’t she tell the police when they put her under protection?”

“Just the fact that she was abducted under the FBI’s noses shows that she was right to have an insurance.”

“I’m just glad everyone’s okay. Now we go back and get yelled at.” Hope said pouting.

“Why? We just saved the innocent and put the bad behind bars. We're heroes.” Lizzie exclaimed and Hope rolled her eyes.

* * *

Thinking backwards, Hope should’ve known that Lizzie wasn’t going to just do the _mental mumble jumble_ on him. She was too damn keen to violence to do that and frankly, Hope have known her for the past eight years.

“Seventeen broken bones.” Hope’s captain hissed at Hope. “His jaw was so deformed that he will have to do speak therapy.” He shouted angry.

“Do they have speak therapy in prison?” Lizzie asked frowning and Hope winced at the look her captain gave her. The worst was that Lizzie really was wondering that question. Hope knew that she was truly curious about it. She sighed.

“I take full responsibility for her actions.” Hope said trying to picture her new life behind the desk. “I’ll do the paperwork.”

“Part of his hair was pulled with so much force that the scalp was ripped off.” The captain continued. He wasn’t even looking at Lizzie; just at Hope. “Looking at his medical chart, someone could say that he was tortured for hours.” He said getting angrier by the second. Lizzie opened her mouth to talk and if Lizzie were anyone else they might have been able to notice the reprimand look on both Hope’s and the captain’s faces and shut the mouth. But she was Lizzie and Lizzie didn’t get things like normal people did so she said:

“Oh no no.” She frowned. “If I had tortured him for hours, he would have coagulated blood when they took him to the hospital. Also, the bones that I broke are not the ones usually broken in torture methods. Except, perhaps, if you consider the Medieval Torture Machines.” Lizzie said as if she were a history teacher explain something simple to an exceedingly difficult student. Hope’s captain only looked at her and then at Hope.

“If I could, I would throw her in a mental institution.” He wondered out loud. “But for some reason they think you two worked well.” He exclaimed surprised.

“We did get a confession. And we saved both the mom and the kid.” Hope stated and it did nothing to calm her captain.

“That’s why you two will keep your jobs.” He reluctantly said.

“You’re not the one to decide if I keep my job or not.” Lizzie said and to anyone else it looked like a rude remark but for Hope, who knew her for a very long time, it sounded more like a statement; a simple factual remark. Hope’s captain really hadn’t a say on Lizzie’s work status.

“Like I was saying, you two keep the job.” He said ignoring Lizzie and focusing on Hope. “They actually decided to pair you two up.” Hope frowned.

“What do you mean?” Hope asked worried.

“You two already worked together once, right?” He asked, now a little more curious and less angry.

“Yes.” Hope said.

“None of your business.” Lizzie said at the same time and was once again ignored.

“Well, someone upstairs…” He looked at Lizzie. “Someone with the power to decide if we keep our jobs or not” He said intensely. “decided that you’ll work together again. Congratulations! You’re partners now.” He said with a big real smile knowing that that was definitely what neither Hope or Lizzie wanted.

“What? They know I don’t do partners.” Lizzie shouted horrified. The captain smiled again.

“Not for me to decide. You can file a complain if you want to. Now excuse me. Since you two are not my responsibility, I’ll leave early and drink to these wonderful news.” He said smiling broadly, then standing up and leaving the room. _“Drinks on me, guys.”_ Hope heard him saying to the other agents on his way to the elevator; his voice happy and playful.

“I won’t work with you. Not again.” Lizzie exclaimed mad. Hope rolled her eyes.

“I’m not that bad. Let's face it: you’re the problem.”

“How am I the problem?” Lizzie asked stunned. “You’re too emotional.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes. “That’s why you almost killed us in the desert that one time.”

“I didn’t almost kill us because I was emotional. I almost killed us because I was tired and dehydrated.” Hope stated.

“Were you also tired and dehydrated when you made us jump from that plane?” Lizzie asked with a raised eyebrow, the sign of her point being valid.

“Would you rather stay there and be exploded to little pieces?” Hope retorted.

“Medium pieces. I already told you it would be medium pieces.” She corrected and Hope huffed. “And I told you I could disarm the bomb.”

“You’re a psychologist, Lizzie. Sorry if I wasn’t willing to risk our asses on your antiterrorism skills.” Hope said and Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“I’m not working with you again!”

_Next chapter_

_"I hate working with you!" Lizzie whispered. "You always makes me do this." Lizzie hissed at her._

_"Just go with it, Lizzie." Hope hissed back._

_"I will never forgive you for this!" Lizzie screamed getting everyone's attention. Hope looked around trying to look nervous._

_"It was only one time, honey." Hope said._

_"It doesn't matter, Faith." Lizzie exclaimed and Hope almost laughed at the fake name. "It's over. You can collect your things from my place while I'm here. If I find anything yours when I get back I'll throw it in a sacrificial fire... along with you." Lizzie said turning around and hitting Hope's face with her long hair. Even if Hope was adamant on working with Lizzie again, she had to admit that the blonde knew how to be funny. She watched as Lizzie made her way to the elevator. When the doors closed, Hope turned around and left the hotel. When she went back to her car, she turned the cons on._

_"Congratulations, Lizzie. You're in."_


	2. The Body in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope and Lizzie are called to investigate a body found in the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter. Very fast because it was already written.
> 
> I hope you like it. I'm liking this fic. Detectives au allows all kinds of cliches. haha
> 
> Please tell me if you like it in the comments.

Hope was sleeping when her phone started ringing. She sighed and answered it and looking at the clock on her nightstand. 9:35 am. “Mikaelson.”

“Dead body in the woods. Get your doctor. I’ll text you the address.” Her captain said.

“She’s not _my_ doctor.” Hope said but he had already hung up. Hope rolled her eyes and got out of bed. Twenty minutes later she was parking her car in front of Lizzie’s apartment. She left the car and looked at the keys to Lizzie’s apartment on her hand. She sighed and opened the outer door. When the elevator left her on Lizzie’s floor, Hope grunted. She knocked on the door and waited for Lizzie to answer. She didn’t. Hope rolled her eyes and knocked again preparing herself to use her keys to open the door and then listen to Lizzie complaining about it for the rest of the week. When she gave up knocking and was about to open the door, Lizzie opened it. She looked at the keys on Hope’s hand and then at Hope. The glare was enough for Hope to read her mind. _I thought I had told you to throw those keys in the trash._ Hope ignored the look.

“Dead body in the woods.” Hope said smiling charmingly.

“And?” Lizzie asked yawning not giving a shit to Hope’s charm.

“They told me to bring you.” Hope said shrugging.

“Why?”

“They didn’t tell me, Lizzie.” Hope said and Lizzie rolled her eyes. She turned around and walked back to her bedroom. Hope sat on the kitchen counter and started to eat the cookies she found in a jar there. After a few minutes, Lizzie left the room brushing her hair. Hope felt like she was having a déjà vu. She remembered them then, a lot younger than now, in places much like this apartment Lizzie lived. They were unstoppable together. Hope smiled softly.

“Drop the silly face, Hope.” Lizzie said picking up her things and going to the door. Hope jumped out of the counter and followed her. When they were in the car, Hope looked at her.

“Are we going to talk?” Hope asked.

“I prefer if we don’t.” Lizzie said pretending to type something on her phone.

“It’s not going to be that bad.” Hope tried anyway. Lizzie glanced at her.

“It will if you continue to ignore my preferences like you did just now.” Lizzie said. Hope rolled her eyes.

“I don’t really know why you’re angry at me. It’s not like it’s my fault that we’re working together.” Hope said.

“I could swear that you were the one bursting into my office with children when I explicitly told you not to.” Lizzie accused angry.

“I guess you have a point. I’m sorry about that.” Hope said and she saw Lizzie opening her mouth to say something snarky back and then noticing the truth in Hope’s voice. “I know you told me not to bring children from violent cases to you and I disregarded you by keep bringing them. It’s just that I trust you with them. I know you care.” Hope said quietly. “Sometimes too much.” She said later when Lizzie didn’t say anything.

“Don’t go this path, Hope.” Lizzie said just as quietly. Hope nodded. When they drove all the way to the woods and Hope finally parked the car, she looked at Lizzie flashing her most charming smile.

“I, for one, think that it’s good that we’re back together.” Hope said and left the car, but not before she saw Lizzie rolling her eyes with fondness and hiding a smile. They walked a few meters and finally found the body. The coroner was already there. “What can you tell me?” Hope asked looking at the body.

“Allergic reaction.” Lizzie said behind her at the same time the coroner opened his mouth to talk. “Very severe.” She remarked looking at the rashes. “Is it what killed her?”

“Probably. But I can’t say for sure until I examine the body at the morgue.” He said and Lizzie nodded.

“Do we have an identification?” Hope asked.

“She didn’t have any documents with her.”

“Time of death?” Hope asked him.

“Body temperature indicates three days but I’ll know for sure when I send those bugs to the lab.” He said pointing at the little maggots crawling on the rashes. Hope saw Lizzie frowning and then picking up one of the maggots with her gloved hand. She looked at it for a few seconds and then dropped it back on the body.

“You’re wrong. It's at least five days. But you’ll know for sure when you get the results from the lab.” Lizzie said and Hope looked apologetically at the mortified coroner. “Why am I here?” Lizzie said looking at Hope.

“In the text the captain sent me, he said that two kids found the body.” Hope said and they walked back to where the police cars were parked. A boy and a girl of apparently thirteen years old were sitting on a tree branch with a woman next to them.

“Hey, you must be the ones that found the body.” Lizzie said getting their attention. The woman with them winced.

“Yes. They were going to school when they found it. I’m their mom. I called the cops as soon they brought me here.” The woman said. “I already told them not to go to the school through the woods.” The mom said to Lizzie but she was really meaning it to the kids.

“Can I talk to them?” Lizzie asked the mom and when she nodded, Lizzie smiled at the kids. “Are you twins?” She asked them and they nodded. “I have a twin too. Her name is Josie and I’m Lizzie. When we were your age…fourteen?” Lizzie asked and they nodded. “…we didn’t obey mom and dad either.” Lizzie said in that soft secretive tone that made the whole population under eighteen love her instantly. Hope watched as both the boy and the girl’s eyes shined. “Is it faster through the woods?” Lizzie asked sitting on the branch next to them with a knowing look.

“Yes. If we go through the road, we take thirty minutes, through the woods we save thirteen minutes.” The boy said serious. Lizzie nodded.

“It is a lot, indeed.” Lizzie said earning a nod from both kids. “What did you do when you found it?” Lizzie asked. 

“We went back home running and brought mom here.” The girl answered without looking on Lizzie’s eyes. Lizzie looked at Hope. “When did the cops get the call?” Hope looked at the text the captain sent.

“8:45” Hope said.

“I see.” Lizzie said looking intensely at them. “Your school starts 8:30?” She asked and they nodded. “So I guess you leave your house at 8:00?”

“Yes.” The boy said.

“I think I saw your school when I was driving here. Littlerock Bridge High, right?” Lizzie asked and Hope could see a trap coming but she didn’t know where Lizzie was going yet. The kids nodded again. “So if you save thirteen minutes through the woods, it means that you make it all the way from your house to the school in seventeen minutes. Like I said, I saw your school and it couldn’t be more than ten minutes away from where you found the body, which makes the time from your house to the place you found it approximately seven minutes. If you found it and ran back home to call you mom, why did we only get the call 8:45?” Lizzie asked and Hope watched as the mom frowned thinking about the time for the first time and the kids looked at each other as if they were caught stealing something.

“I told you they would find out!” The boy screamed at the girl.

“They just did because you told them, stupid.” The girl said and Hope was taken aback by it.

“What are you hiding, Emma?” The mom asked the girl. When she didn’t say a word, the mom looked at the boy. “Lucas?” And he started crying.

“There was a suitcase next to the body. We opened it and there was money inside it. We hid it in our garage before taking mom here.” The boy finished sobbing. Lizzie looked at Hope with a raised eyebrow.

“Did you know it is a crime to hide evidence? You could go to jail.” Lizzie said and the girl finally showed a little embarrassment.

“We didn’t know.” The girl said but Hope knew that she must certainly knew, she just didn’t think she would be caught. It was written on her face.

“They will show it to you, agent.” The mom said desperate. “We’re going to collaborate with the investigation.” She said looking at the kids with fire on her eyes. Lizzie nodded.

“Thank you. I’ll talk to one of the officers to go with you. If you know something else, you can call me on this number.” Lizzie said standing up and giving the mom a card. Then she looked at Hope smugly. When they went back to the car Hope rolled her eyes.

“How did you know?” Hope asked driving the car back to the road where they came from.

“Soil under the girl’s nails and on both their pants as if they had kneeled on the ground.” Lizzie said smiling.

“You humor seems to be much better now.” Hope said glancing at her.

“Yeah. Telling a coroner that he’s wrong and catching two little liars in the making have a way of bettering the humor.” Lizzie said grinning.

“You’re mean.” Hope said laughing.

“The boy giving up so easily was a bummer though. When Josie and I were teenagers and the police questioned us about the fire, I didn’t break.” Lizzie said winking at Hope.

“You shouldn’t be so proud.” Hope said frowning. “You got filed for that.”

“I got filed for a lot of things, Hope.” Lizzie said shrugging. “Getting filed for helping my sister burn to ashes her ex’s car is something I don’t regret.”

“Do you regret any of the other files?” Hope asked casually making the conversation turn serious. Lizzie looked softly at her.

“Only one.” Lizzie sighed. After a few silent but not all awkward moments, Lizzie looked at Hope. “Now it’s your time to do magic.” Lizzie said smiling.

* * *

Lizzie watched Hope drawing with wonder. She would never be tired of watching Hope give life and colors to dead people. After they went to the building and they were waiting for the coroner to give some news and for the lab to confirm Lizzie’s assessment that the coroner was wrong and the victim was dead for more than five days, they went to Lizzie’s office. Hope was sitting on the floor of the break room, a lot of pictures of the dead body from various angles scattered on the floors. Since the girl’s whole body was covered in rashes, it would be difficult to put her picture in the computer to find a match, so Hope bettering the poor girl to make it easier.

Sometimes Lizzie wondered if Hope missed drawing landscapes and smiling families like she used to do when she was younger. Lizzie sometimes wanted to ask; to talk to Hope like they used to about everything. Hope was still the first person Lizzie would call if she needed any help or was in any trouble, but she missed the time when she just called Hope to talk about a book she had just finished or because she was bored.

“Finished.” Hope said showing the tablet with the fixed woman.

“She was beautiful.” Lizzie said a little surprised. She looked at one of the pictured of the body and then again at the one Hope had just finished. Once again, she felt that surge of affection for this amazing woman that was capable of taking something so ugly and giving it beauty.

“Now, I’ll upload the picture to the system and wait for a match.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded. After Hope finished and put away her tablet, Lizzie gave her a bag.

“I ordered us food while you were working.”

“Thank you.” Hope said and they ate in silence. Then Hope looked at her. “Sometimes.” She simply said and Lizzie tilted her head questioning. “You were looking at me drawing. I miss drawing other things apart from dead bodies and suspects.” Hope said smiling softly. Lizzie smiled at her; at how she knew exactly what Lizzie was thinking.

“Perhaps we should go back to Paris so you can go back to drawing those naked people.” Lizzie said smirking.

“We were on a mission, Lizzie!” Hope exclaimed blushing. “I had to draw naked people to keep my cover.”

“Okay but you-” Lizzie was interrupted by Hope’s phone ringing.

“Mikaelson.” She answered. “Okay, thank you.” Hope said finishing the call. “The coroner said that she was having sex before she died.” Hope said.

“I figured since she was naked. Consensual?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes. And they found a hotel key inside the suitcase. Let’s check it.” Hope said putting the rest of her sandwich in her mouth and standing up. After picking up the key, with the lab guys, they drove to the hotel. “Rich people’s hotel.” Hope said disgusted. Lizzie rolled her eyes at her.

“You do know you’re rich, right?” Lizzie said buffing and when Hope only glared at her, she continued. “It’s going to be hard to get in without a Warrant.” She said before leaving the car.

“We can sneak in.” Hope said.

“In these clothes we don’t look rich enough to enter.” Lizzie whispered back as they entered the lobby. Then she felt Hope looking her up and down and Hope pushed a strand of Lizzie’s hair behind her ear. It was a distraction, Lizzie noticed when she felt the little con Hope put inside her ear. Lizzie knew what Hope was going to do before the wide grin appeared on Hope’s face.

“Let’s do our thing.” Hope said smiling at her.

* * *

Lizzie was right. There was no way they would get in unless they shifted attention to other things. And Hope knew exactly what.

“No way.” Lizzie whispered.

“Come on, you loved doing this.” Hope said taking her hands and passing the hotel key to her.

"I hate working with you!" Lizzie whispered. "You always makes me do this." Lizzie hissed at her.

"Just go with it, Lizzie." Hope hissed back.

"I will never forgive you for this!" Lizzie screamed getting everyone's attention. Hope looked around trying to look nervous.

"It was only one time, honey." Hope said.

"It doesn't matter, Faith." Lizzie exclaimed and Hope almost laughed at the fake name. "It's over. You can collect your things from my place while I'm here. If I find anything yours when I get back I'll throw it in a sacrificial fire... along with you." Lizzie said turning around and hitting Hope's face with her long hair. Even if Hope was adamant on working with Lizzie again, she had to admit that the blonde knew how to be funny. She watched as Lizzie made her way to the elevator. When the doors closed, Hope turned around and left the hotel. When she went back to her car, she turned the cons on.

"Congratulations, Lizzie. You're in."

“I hate you.” She heard Lizzie saying but there was no truth to her words.

“Have you found her room? Try knocking first. If she’s dead for a long time maybe they cleaned the room and booked to someone else.” Hope said.

“Thank you for telling me what I already knew.” Lizzie said and Hope felt her eyes rolling. She laughed. “I got in. They didn’t clean it. The bed is a mess and there are towels on the ground but nothing personal on the room. She probably booked it for a few days and asked them not to clean.” Hope heard as Lizzie searched the room for something. “Aha.” Lizzie exclaimed a few minutes later.

“What did you find?"

“A piece of paper. Nothing written on it, but I think that we can send it to the lab so they can look in the computer for where it belongs. There’s some kind of logo in it but it’s ripped in half.”

“Okay. Now get back to the car.” Hope said and turned off the cons when her cellphone ringed. “Mikaelson.”

“We just confirmed death. It happened six days ago.” The coroner said reluctantly. Hope smiled. He was probably hating on Lizzie right now.

“And cause of death?” Hope asked and him, trying to compensate for being wrong earlier, started to say a lot of boring technical words that didn’t mean anything for Hope. She heard it watching as Lizzie left the hotel and walked back to the car. “Meaning?” Hope asked when she was done of letting the guy talk and Lizzie entered the car.

“She died because she was allergic to the poison ivy that grew in that part of the forest.”

“So it’s not a homicide.” Hope said for Lizzie to know with whom she was talking to.

“No but since she was having sex, someone was definitely there with her.” He said.

“Thank you.” Hope said hanging up. “She’s been dead for six days.” Hope told Lizzie as she drove away from the hotel.

“I told him.” Lizzie said smugly.

“How did you know?”

“There were pupas on the body. Eggs take at least five days to turn into pupas.” Lizzie said.

“How do you even know that?” Hope asked surprised but not so surprised.

“How do you speak six languages?” Lizzie asked raising her eyebrow.

“We did live in a lot of cities.” Hope said.

“But I didn’t learn to speak their languages.” Lizzie rolled her eyes. “I took entomology in university.” She said later.

“Where’s the piece of paper you found?” Hope asked. Lizzie took it out of her pocked and gave it to Hope. “You should have used gloves.” Hope said.

“You should have gone into the room yourself if you wanted perfection.” Lizzie blurted making Hope shake her head.

“You always want to have the last word.”

“Of course.” Lizzie said and Hope looked at the paper. “I think it’s from a restaurant.” Lizzie pointed at the logo. “It looks like a shrimp, doesn’t it?”

“Kinda.”

“I already took a picture and sent it to Maya from tech so she can compare with another logos.” Lizzie said and Hope’s eyes widened. Lizzie smiled sweetly. “I know you have her tracking me all the time.”

“How do you know that?” Hope asked embarrassed.

“Please, Hope, Maya is also my friend.” Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t know you had friends.” Hope said slowly.

“It’s really hard when you keep turning them into moles for you, but I try.” Lizzie smiled. When they were about to park and go back to the office, Hope got a call. She answered it and put it on speakers.

“Hope, it’s Maya.”

“Hey, Maya. I’m with Lizzie. You have a match?”

“Yes, I do. For the girl and for the restaurant. Her name was Julia Waters. She was reported missing by her best friend four days ago. The name of the restaurant the logo is from is Seaside Culinary.”

“Thank you, Maya.” Hope said.

“How’s working together again?” Maya asked with a playful voice.

“I don’t like it but I did get to prove the coroner wrong earlier today and you know how much I love being right.” Lizzie said smiling.

“Oh yeah. I heard about it. Apparently he’s complaining to the four corners of the world about you.” Maya said laughing.

“Just like she loves.” Hope said rolling her eyes. “Thank you again, Maya.”

“So, are we paying a visit to the restaurant?” Lizzie asked.

“Yep.” Hope said pulling the car out of the parking lot and driving to the place Maya had said. When they got there, Hope showed Julia’s picture to the waitress. “Have you seen this girl here?” Hope asked. The woman looked at the picture and shook her head.

“I’ve never seen her but I only work here for a week.” She said apologetically. Hope and Lizzie then went to talk to the manager.

“Hey, I’m sorry for taking your time, but have you seen this girl here?” Hope asked. The woman was about to say no when Hope told her the name. “Her name is Julia Waters.” Recognition hit her face.

“The cook has a girlfriend named Julia. I think she came here once but I may be wrong.”

“Can I talk to the cook?” Hope asked and then woman went inside the kitchen to call them. Hope and Lizzie waited till the manager came back with a man next to her and a waitress following them.

“I brought you some iced tea, agents.” The woman said before leaving them with the cook. Hope took one of the glasses and sipped at it before turning to the man.

“Hey, I’m agent Mikaelson and this is Lizzie Saltzman. We’re here about a girl. Her name is Julia Waters.” Hope said showing him the picture. “Do you know her?” Hope asked and the guy looked at the picture.

“No, I don’t think so.” He said after looking at it.

“The manager said you had a girlfriend named Julia.” Lizzie said looking him up and down. Hope glanced at her.

“Not this one.” He said pointing at the picture.

“You sure you never met her before?” Hope asked again. He was definitely lying.

“Yes.”

“Can I take a look at your genitalia?” Lizzie asked and Hope choked on her tea. Her eyes snapped at Lizzie.

“She didn’t mean that.” Hope said already think of the next file to be added on Lizzie’s pile: sexual harassment.

“Yes, I most definitely do. Did you notice that he walked funny when he was coming here?” Lizzie asked looking right into his eyes. “One of the most common places for poison ivy rashes to show up is the genitals. Considering that they were doing the deed in the forest, I believe that if he shows us his dick we’ll know that he was there.” Lizzie said and Hope grunted. Using the word dick didn’t help.

“Okay, we’re taking you with us. If you’re you were not there, the semen found on her won’t match you.” Hope said.

“But I used a con-” He started and realized to late that he had already screwed up. Hope smiled.

“We didn’t really find any semen. You really used the condom.”

“I didn’t kill her.” He pleaded.

“You just left her there instead of taking her to a hospital.” Lizzie said taking the handcuffs from Hope’s pocket. “You’re under arrest for refusing to help someone in need. You have the right to remain silent because every word can and will be used against you.” Lizzie said cuffing him and taking him to the car. When she shoved him inside with not so much care and closed the door, Hope pulled her aside.

“Are you crazy?” Hope asked shocked. “First, you’re not a cop, so can’t arrest people. Second, you should have used _your_ right to remain silent.” Hope said pointing at Lizzie. “And last, refusing to help someone in need is not even a cause.” Hope said grunting. “I hope they find freaking rashes on his dick, Lizzie.” Hope said entering the car and driving the guy to the hospital. After waiting for three hours for the result, it finally came: the rashes on the man’s genitals were caused by the poison ivy.

“I told you.” Lizzie said.

“I didn’t doubt you, Lizzie. Next time just let’s avoid asking people to see their genitals.” Hope said rolling her eyes. They entered the room where the guy had been analyzed. “You were there.” Hope told him sitting in front of him.

“I didn’t know what to do. Do you know why we were in the forest?” He asked and Hope shook her head. “She was selling drugs. She asked me to meet her there because she was taking pictures; she was a photographer. I decided to make a surprise and got there earlier just to find her selling drugs to some guys. I got scared and went back to my car, but then I realized I had dropped my phone on the woods. When I came back to search for it, the guys had already let but she saw me. I pretended that I had just gotten there. I would go to the police later and tell them about it. But then she started kissing me and I didn’t want her to suspect so I went along with it and had sex until she started having trouble breathing and getting red. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there and watched her die. I didn’t mean to.” He said. Hope looked at Lizzie and she nodded. The guy was telling the truth.

“What did you do then?”

“I went to my car and drove away. Am I going to jail?” He asked.

“I guess you can help us with something.” Hope told him.

“Anything.”

“How about you describe the guys she was meeting with? Did you get a good look at them?” Hope asked.

“Yes. Whatever you need.” He said and Hope nodded. When they left the room, Lizzie looked at her.

“Okay, I didn’t expect that she would be a drug dealer.” Lizzie exclaimed.

“Well, the money was there for a reason. I bet the lab will find traces of drug on it.” Hope said as they went to the car.

“I’m tired.” Lizzie said yawning. “I forgot how being in the field is exhausting.”

“Now we just have to get back to the office to file everything and we can go home.” Hope said.

“Thank god he didn’t file a complaint against you for sexual harassment.” Hope joked while she finished writing the report. Lizzie was sitting on the table in front of Hope. It was late and the office was empty, except for them. Or so Hope thought.

“I just asked to see his dick.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes as a throat noise startled them. Hope’s captain had just entered the office.

“I don’t even wanna know.” He said raising his hand. “Not my business. I just came here to pick up my son’s birthday gift that I forgot earlier.” He said entering one of the rooms. When she left it with a box on his hands, he looked at them and Hope knew he was curious but he didn’t ask. “I don’t need know.” He said again and entered the elevator to leave. When the doors closed, Lizzie looked at Hope and laughed. Hope couldn’t hold it so she laughed too. She missed this.

After finally finishing up and leaving the building, Hope looked at Lizzie. “Wanna go to my place? We can order pizza and watch The X Files. I know you love to complain about Mulder.” Hope said, apparently forgetting that they didn’t do this anymore. She watched as Lizzie opened her mouth and she braced herself for the rejection.

“Yeah, sure. But I choose the wine.” She said softly leaving Hope stunned. After shaking the surprise away, Hope entered the car.

When the pizza arrived and they sat on the couch eating it, Hope felt like everything was getting back in place like it was before.

“I’m glad we’re working together again.” She said quietly and glancing at Lizzie. Lizzie didn’t look at her, she only made herself comfortable on the couch and smiled. And it was enough for Hope to know that she was happy too.

_Next chapter_

_“I don’t like you, miss blondie.” The girl said. Lizzie opened her mouth to talk and then closed. It wasn’t the first time a child didn’t like her at first._

_“That’s okay. I’m here to-”_

_“I don’t care why you’re here for. What are you going to tell me? I’m here for you? I’m going to help you?” The girl huffed sarcastically. “I don’t care.”_

_“Okay.” Lizzie said standing up and leaving the children’s room. She looked at Hope as she closed the door behind her. “How old is she again?” She asked._

_“Ten.” Hope said frowning._

_“She hates me.” Lizzie exclaimed hopelessly._

_“She doesn’t hate you. She just doesn’t trust you yet.” Hope said trying to cheer Lizzie up after the last pointless hour of trying to make the girl talk. “She will trust you.” Hope said with a strained smile. Lizzie tilted her head._

_“Why do I feel like there’s a storm coming?” Lizzie asked narrowing her eyes._

_“I kind of told social services that we’ll take care of her for the weekend.” Hope mumbled fast._

_“Come again.” Lizzie said breathing slowly._

_“We’re going to be foster parents for the next two days.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENTS COMMENTS PLEASE


	3. The Joys of Parenthood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa gives Hope and Lizzie a hard time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like Alyssa as much as I like her. She'll be around quite often. I enjoyed writing her so much because I love writing people with defensive behavior. I also love to write people that realize that other people are in love and call them out on it.
> 
> You can't hate on Alyssa because she's a sweetie. So is Pedro pls

Hope was watching Lizzie trying and having absolutely no success in talking to the girl when her captain walked and stopped right beside her.

“Any progress?” He asked.

“Not yet. This girl is hard.” Hope said still looking through the glass to Lizzie and the girl.

“I thought your doctor was some kind of child whisperer.” He said sarcastically. Hope rolled her eyes.

“She is. The girl will talk. I’ve never met a child that didn’t surrender to Lizzie.” Hope said grinning. “Nor an adult for that matter.” Hope frowned remembering her hurtful ways of getting things from adults.

“I sure hope so.” He said. Then he looked directly at Hope. “Mikaelson, remember when you called in sick for two weeks when you weren’t really sick? And you told me you owed me one?” The captain asked and Hope nodded reluctantly. “Time to pay your debt.”

“Sure. What is it?” Hope asked.

“I hadn’t been completely honest with you. The reason I asked you to bring this girl to your doctor is because her social worker is a friend of mine and she’s having trouble with her.” He said and Hope stared at him blankly. “She refuses to talk and she was causing trouble to her foster parents so they turned her back. They don’t know what to do.” He finished.

“You already told me that. That’s why we brought her to Lizzie. You wanted her to figure out why the girl is acting out in violent ways.”

“Correctly. Alyssa was always a troublesome kid but she was never violent and angry. But for some reason, she’s been acting like that.” He said and Hope nodded.

“Lizzie will find out what happened. You can be sure.” Hope said confidently.

“I am. But that’s not what I want you to do.” He said grudgingly.

“What do you want me to do?” Hope asked slowly. He looked over her shoulders and smiled.

“You’ll know soon enough.” And when Hope was about to ask why not now, he said “There she comes.” And Hope turned around to Alyssa’s social worker walking to them. Hope hadn’t had the chance to talk to her yet. When she arrived at Lizzie’s office one hour ago, she just left Alyssa with Lizzie and went upstairs to get some files in the archive room with Hope’s captain. “This is Mrs. Laguna. We went to college together.” Her captain said introducing Hope to the lady. “Rachel, this is agent Hope Mikaelson. She’ll be happy to help you for the weekend.” He said and Hope looked at him and then at the woman.

“Oh, thank you so much. Alyssa will behave, I promise.” The woman said not very sure of it. “You really saved me.” Rachel said relieved. “I can’t take long here. My flight is scheduled to an hour. I’ll be back Monday. Thank you again. You just have to sign these papers.” Rachel said giving Hope some papers to sign.

“Papers?” Hope asked narrowing her eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t explain right.” Rachel said embarrassed. “These ones are your criminal record.” She said giving Hope some papers. “It’s perfect, by the way.” She said smiling. “These ones are the foster parenting term.” She said and Hope choked and looked at her captain who just nodded at her to just go along with it.

“I thought there was more bureaucracy to foster parenting.” Hope joked glaring at her not ashamed captain.

“There is to normal people. But you’re an agent and your girlfriend is a psychologist. Both work for the FBI. And I take your captain’s word when he said he trusts you.” The woman said and Hope looked again at her captain.

“Yes. Me and my girlfriend.” She repeated.

“Just sign here. And here. Perfect. Now I’ll leave a copy of these papers for your girlfriend to sign. You can fax it to me when she finish.” The woman said giving Hope the papers and putting the ones Hope signed inside her briefcase. “I can’t thank you enough.” She said turning to the transparent glass to watch Alyssa. “When I get back, I’ll find them a new place.” Rachel said looking fondly at the girl. The word _them_ didn’t fall lost to Hope. Rachel looked at Hope and the captain. “Thank you, Vincent, for helping me out and thank you, agent Mikaelson. Pedro is with my assistant in the waiting room.” She said turning around and leading them back to the waiting room where Lizzie’s secretary was horrified; probably already understanding all this and foreseeing Lizzie’s foul mood towards her next week. Hope looked at the boy of no more than five years old playing with some toys silently. Rachel went to him and said her goodbyes. Then she and her assistant left. The boy didn’t eve care as if being tossed around by social workers and foster parents were normal. Hope’s heart dropped. Hope stared at her captain.

“I thought you just wanted Lizzie to talk to her.” Hope hissed.

“She can try talking to the girl in the weekend.” He said simply.

“My girlfriend? She’s going to kill me. I thought it was wrong to lie to child services.” Hope accused him.

“We didn’t lie. The papers you signed don’t implicate you as girlfriends. Just that you’re sharing her custody till Rachel find a place for her. Rachel’s mother is at the hospital and she needs to see her. She hadn’t found anyone to take Alyssa and it’s already 7:00 pm of a Friday. She would lose her flight and with the holidays coming, she wouldn’t be able to book another one. I needed her to be calm and relaxed this weekend for her mom. When my mother died, she was there for me.” He said affectionately.

“Why didn’t you offered to take Alyssa then?” Hope hissed.

“I’m a man with two sons: a fifteen years old and a twelve years old. Alyssa is a girl.” He stated, then “It’s just for the weekend, Mikaelson.” He said and Hope sighed.

“Lizzie’s gonna kill me.” She said.

“Good luck.” He said turning around. “Don’t forget to use this time to make Alyssa talk.” He said leaving Lizzie’s office. “And oh, Mikaelson, you and your doctor are free for the weekend.” Hope gave one look at Pedro and then went back to Children’s room window.

“Great.” Hope murmured watching the girl talking for the first time since she had entered the children’s room. When Lizzie stood up and left the room, Hope braced herself to tell her the news.

* * *

“I don’t like you, miss blondie.” The girl said. Lizzie opened her mouth to talk and then closed. It wasn’t the first time a child didn’t like her at first.

“That’s okay. I’m here to-”

“I don’t care why you’re here for. What are you going to tell me? I’m here for you? I’m going to help you?” The girl huffed sarcastically. “I don’t care.”

“Okay.” Lizzie said standing up and leaving the children’s room. She looked at Hope as she closed the door behind her. “How old is she again?” She asked.

“Ten.” Hope said frowning.

“She hates me.” Lizzie exclaimed hopelessly.

“She doesn’t hate you. She just doesn’t know you yet.” Hope said trying to cheer Lizzie up after the last pointless hour of trying to make the girl talk. “She will trust you.” Hope said with a strained smile. Lizzie tilted her head.

“Why do I feel like there’s a storm coming?” Lizzie asked narrowing her eyes.

“I kind of told social services that we’ll take care of her for the weekend.” Hope mumbled fast.

“Come again.” Lizzie said breathing slowly.

“We’re going to be foster parents for the next two days.”

“And you knew that before taking her to me and telling me that you wanted me to talk to her?” Lizzie asked calmly because the other option would be screaming and kicking.

“No.” Hope said grimacing. “My captain just called in a favor and-” Hope tried and Lizzie raised a hand for her to stop talking. She breathed deeply.

“Absolutely not.” Lizzie said resolute. Hope, however, already knew Lizzie would give in at the end. She always did when it came to Hope.

“Come one, Lizzie. It’s just for the weekend.” Hope spoke playfully; she tried, at least. She considered pleading but she thought that it would do no good to rest her case. “It’s not like I’m asking you to marry me.” Hope said sarcastic. Lizzie glared at her.

“No. You’re jumping ahead to the ‘ _let’s have kids’_ part of the relationship. Put a ring on the girl first, Mikaelson.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“So you want me to propose to you?” Hope said not being able to stop herself from teasing her friend.

“With your attitude? Not even for your money.” Lizzie said frustrated and turned around. Hope cursed herself.

“Liz, please.” Hope said softly. Lizzie stopped but didn’t look back. “The woman responsible for Alyssa had to travel to visit her sick mom and she couldn’t find anyone to keep her for the weekend.”

“The fact that I tell you that I hate you more than anything else in our relationship should raise a red flag.” Lizzie said sighing.

“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded. She knew that _this_ was a touchy subject to Hope so she didn’t want to bitch around like she would normally do. “We can watch The X Files with her.” Hope said raising an eyebrow. Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“Stop trying to get me with The X Files.” She said laughing.

“There’s one more surprise.” Hope said smiling brightly.

“What?” Lizzie asked sighing.

“We’re also taking Alyssa’s little brother.”

“Of course we are.” Lizzie remarked tiredly because, really, there was no way her plans of doing nothing the whole weekend could get more off track. She then went to the bag that contained Alyssa’s things that was on the floor and gave it to Hope. “Let’s go, Alyssa.” Lizzie called opening the children room’s door. The girl looked at her bored and then stood up. When she went to pick her bag from the floor, she saw it with Hope. Alyssa glared at her and then turned around. Before leaving the building, Lizzie went to her private office and collected the emergency luggage she usually kept there so she wouldn’t have to go home to pick clothes before going to Hope’s house. They left the building and entered the car. Lizzie noticed that Hope kept glancing at the kids through the mirror. “Josie sent you a gift.” Lizzie said getting Hope’s attention and trying to distract her.

“Really?” Hope asked glancing at her.

“Yes. She told me earlier today. I tried to get her to tell me what it is but she didn’t. She said it will arrive tomorrow at your place.” Lizzie said.

“I hope it’s not another boresome book that I’ll have to get through just to make her happy.” Hope said groaning. Lizzie slammed her arm.

“I hope she gives you socks then.” Lizzie said pretending to be protective of her sister’s choice of gifts.

“I love socks.” Hope said. “I never understood why she sends us gift on the 4th of July anyway. What did she give you this year?” Lizzie smiled and then opened her bag. She took out an extremely patriotic t-shirt. Hope giggled. “I definitely prefer socks over this monstrosity. I thought that crazy ugly pieces of clothing were a Christmas thingy. They do that to 4th of July too?” Hope asked disgusted.

“Josie knows the children love festive clothing.” Lizzie exclaimed. 

“If she sends me a funny shirt too, we can match it, take a pic and send her.” Hope said grinning. “She’ll save the photo for our wedding’s video like she’s been doing for the past years.” Hope said sarcastic and Lizzie looked at her. It was funny how only a few weeks of working again with Hope had them playing and teasing each other like they used to. It was almost like they it had always been. Sometimes Lizzie would forget what brought them apart. Sometimes she wouldn’t care. Like in this weekend. She wouldn’t think about bad things and past mistakes. This weekend she would just enjoy holidays with a friend. And children. Lizzie reminded herself looking to the mirror. Pedro was almost sleeping and Alyssa was resolutely looking at the window. Lizzie knew the girl was hurt. That kind of thick wall the girl held high was only built after you had been beaten so much that it started to feel numb. After they arrived at Hope’s place, she noticed that Hope was again staring at the kids. She touched her hand lightly to get her attention. When she looked at her, Lizzie pointed with her head for Hope to say something.

“Let me show where you two are gonna sleep, kids.” Hope said taking them to the guest room. Lizzie took the time to go to Hope’s bedroom and take a shower. When she had finished and put on a short and a t-shirt she found in Hope’s closet, she went to the living room. Hope was sitting alone on the couch.

“The kids?” Lizzie asked sitting next to her.

“Alyssa wanted to stay in the room and Pedro fell asleep while I unpacked their things.” Hope said.

“Did you lock the windows?” Lizzie said looking around to make sure Alyssa wasn’t listening.

“Yes and I turned on the cameras outside the house and I’m keeping an eye on their window.” Hope said showing a live transmission from the garden camera that pointed to the guest room. Lizzie smiled at her.

“Sharp.” Lizzie said smirking. “Someone is threatening her.” Lizzie said after a moment.

“What?” Hope asked turning to her.

“Alyssa. Someone’s threatening her.”

“Threatening a ten years old child? How do you know?” Hope asked horrified.

“I’ve seen the signs before in other kids that had been threatened.” Lizzie started. “The way she-” Lizzie stopped when she heard Alyssa’s footsteps. When Alyssa entered the living room, Lizzie knew she had heard. Alyssa sat on the couch next to where Hope and Lizzie were and looked at them.

“When did your parent die?” She asked looking at Hope. Lizzie narrowed her eyes. Alyssa was antagonizing Hope on purpose. Lizzie knew that tactic very well; she was practically the Master of It.

“How do you know that?” Hope asked calmly. Lizzie, though, felt her trembling a little at the mention of their death.

“There’s pictures of you and your family all over the house.” Alyssa said pointing at some of the framed pictures on the walls. “Some of them with her.” Alyssa pointed at Lizzie. “And some, mostly of when you were little, with some people that I know it’s your family. The most recent picture that I’ve seen of you with the man and the woman that I believe are your parents, it’s from when you were a teenager. Now, with the rest of the family, there are some that I could say it’s as recent as last year or last week.” Alyssa said and Lizzie understood the girl right then.

“God, she’s another you.” Hope whispered looking at Lizzie and then at Alyssa. “You’re right. My parents died when I was fifteen in an accident.”

“You were with them when it happened, right?” Alyssa stated and Hope nodded and stood up a little too fast. She turned to Lizzie and mouthed the words _creepy like you_ before going to the door.

“I’ll go take a shower. You two can change sticky notes while I’m at it.” Lizzie looked at Alyssa and smiled.

“I would've done better than you.” She said and the girl frowned so slightly that someone not as experienced as Lizzie in human behavior wouldn’t notice. Lizzie made a show of looking Alyssa up and down. “These shoes you’re wearing are from the boy you beat up last week, you have a diary and you fixed your brother’s favorite dinosaur toy before kissing him and coming down here.” Lizzie said and smiled when Alyssa’s eyes widened just a little. “Now you’re wondering how I know.” Lizzie speculated out loud. “Let’s see. The name written on the sole of your shoes is Jimmy, which is a nickname for James. I read in you record that you kicked some James’ ass last week.” Lizzie said getting excited when Alyssa’s bored eyes snapped at her at the word _ass_. “Your fingers have writing callouses and since your record says that you don’t care about school, I can only assume that you write a lot in your diary.” Alyssa was finally looking intensely at her. “As for the toy thing… tell me how I found out.” Lizzie placed the challenge. If Lizzie were right and Alyssa was using the most well-known coping mechanism of mankind, Alyssa was probably wanting to cut Lizzie to shreds or be her best friend right now. _Probably both_ , Lizzie thought as Alyssa looked at her own nails and realization hit her and she looked back at Lizzie. Lizzie didn’t wait for the girl to talk. “I see that you’ve realized that there’s green peeling under your nails. I had noticed earlier that your brother was peeling the paint of the dinosaur off. Your brother had just dislocated its head when Hope was taking you to the bedroom. You fixed it before coming here.”

“I didn’t kiss my brother.” Alyssa said defiantly and Lizzie raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, you did.” Lizzie said, softly now.

“And you got that how?” Alyssa asked unaffected.

“Deductive thinking. You fixed his favorite toy before leaving him. You probably placed it next to him on the bed in case he woke up alone. You love him so you kissed him.” Lizzie said and Alyssa looked her up and down slowly just like Lizzie had done.

“She’s in love with you.” Alyssa said after a moment. “You two fought over something some time ago” She mused looking around, then “and she loves candy.” Alyssa finished and Lizzie raised an eyebrow.

“Good. Bold to bet on feelings. It’s safer to stick to provable facts but you’re good.” Lizzie said and watched as Alyssa tried her hard to hide her smile. Lizzie smiled. “Why do you think she’s in love with me?”

“Deductive thinking.” Alyssa said smirking. Lizzie got her.

“Round one is yours, kiddo. Next time I get you.” Lizzie said picking up her phone and ordering some pizza. “Pizza is on me.”

* * *

Alyssa didn’t feel like she had won round one like the doctor had said. No, she felt like she had been tricked. She watched as the doctor, Lizzie was her name, turned on the TV on some old thing Alyssa had never seen. She watched her closely. The relaxed position, the gentle smile and the confident look. Alyssa knew Lizzie was paying attention to her ever move without even peaking at her once. She didn’t want to admit it but the doctor was good. That was probably the reason they had left her here with them for the weekend. They were sure they could make Alyssa talk. Lizzie was pretty sure; Alyssa could notice by the way the doctor’s eyes shined.

“You hurt her, you know.” Lizzie said looking at Alyssa that frowned. “Hope. She doesn’t really talk about her parents’ death.” She said gently but with something protective about it.

“I didn’t know.” Alyssa said trying to look unbothered.

“Yes, you did.” Lizzie said a little less gentle now but not unkindly. Alyssa understood the message. If someone else had spoken to Alyssa like that, she would take it as the first sign that her tactic was working but she was at a lost here. She felt like she had earned respect from Lizzie just by being mean to Hope. When Alyssa would show off like that to people, they would get mildly interested in the beginning but scared or angry by the end. That was her point: get them scared and angry. She didn’t think it would work this time, though. “You can ask me one thing.” Lizzie said getting Alyssa’s interest.

“Why do you think I wanna ask you something?” Alyssa asked tilting her head. Lizzie only shrugged. Alyssa thought about it. “Why do you think I’m being threatened?” She asked curiously.

“Defensive behavior, micro expression and a little bit of green.” Lizzie said. Alyssa thought about what the right course of action would be. Antagonizing her and, consequently, Hope wouldn’t do this time. They were already expecting this from Alyssa. She had to come up with a new method. She smiled.

“I would consider my behavior offensive, I don’t know what a micro expression is and my favorite color is yellow, not green.” Alyssa said, smiling satisfied when Lizzie’s eyes widened a bit in surprise.

“You changed your approach. Good. You would make a great chess player, Alyssa.” Lizzie said and Alyssa almost rolled her eyes. She didn’t understand why people praised it so much. It was a boring game.

“You always said that chess was a boring game.” Alyssa heard behind her. Agent Mikaelson. She was looking at Lizzie.

“You can be good at something boring. Take me as an example. I’m good in pretty much everything but pretty much everything is boring as hell.” Lizzie said laughing when Hope’s eye widened and she said:

“Lizzie, watch your mouth.”

The whole thing was interesting. Alyssa knew they had some kind of game going on; that they had an unspoken understanding of how to handle things but Alyssa hadn’t figure it out yet. Hope was emotion and Lizzie was reason; that wouldn’t change. Hope would try to get Alyssa to talk using emotions and Lizzie would try using cunning. The dangerous one would usually be cunning because Alyssa wouldn’t be worried about emotions, but this time was different. For the first time Alyssa got scared that her plan wouldn’t work. She looked at Lizzie and Hope fighting over which episode they would watch and realized something: while she had always thought of emotion and cunning apart and had always dealt with them perfectly, this time they were together. Just right in front of Alyssa.

* * *

After the pizza arrived and they started to eat watching television, Hope took the time to watch Alyssa. Lizzie had said once to Hope that foster kids are more observant than other children because they have to learn how to read people and situations around them in order to survive. Alyssa sure knew how to see things. Hope felt bad that this ten years old girl had been through so much that she was as good as adults at keeping people away. It didn’t take long after they had eaten for Lizzie to sleep, she was always fast asleep, and Hope was left with a wide-awake Alyssa. Hope noticed that the girl kept glancing at her.

“She always sleep before finishing whatever she’s watching.” Hope said looking at Lizzie. Alyssa followed Hope’s eyes and twisted her lips in an attempt to prevent a smile. “You can change if you want to.” Hope said pointing at the TV. Alyssa didn’t move. She only glanced at Hope and then back at the TV. After a few minutes of a somewhat awkward silence, Alyssa looked at Hope.

“You’re in love with her.” She said pointing at Lizzie with her chin.

“I-” Hope only looked at the girl. It wasn’t a surprise, really. Not to her family, not to Lizzie’s sister and definitely not to Lizzie. But Hope had gotten used to believe that she hid it well enough to outside people; people that didn’t know them well. She was wrong, however, because Alyssa’s assessment was sure and on point. “Why do you think that I’m in love with her?” Hope tilted her head. Alyssa eyes turned to Hope’s lap where Lizzie’s feet rested and then at the pictures of the two of them on the wall and then at the pile of The X Files DVDs beside the TV, Lizzie’s favorite series. Then she looked back at Hope and raised an eyebrow. The expression was such a Lizzie thing to do that Hope was momentarily taken aback by it. She shook her head and smiled. “You’re right. I am.” Hope admitted and apparently Alyssa didn’t expect it because her mouth opened and her eyes widened while she glanced at Lizzie. “She knows it.” Hope whispered still smiling.

“So why aren’t the two of you dating?” Alyssa asked frowning cutely and this time she looked, for the first time since Hope had brought her home, like a child.

“Well, sweetie, that usually requires the other person to be in love with you too. You can’t make someone love you.” Hope said, just a little bit of sadness in her voice, looking at Lizzie. Alyssa didn’t say anything and when Hope looked at her again, her eyes were shining with unshed tears and she looked away.

“I’m tired.” Alyssa said standing up. “I’ll go to the bedroom.” Alyssa walked slowly and stopped by the door. Hope looked at her.

“Do you need something else, Alyssa?” Hope asked softly. She watched as the girl fought some inside battle.

“Some people aren’t meant to get love.” Alyssa said finally leaving the living room and going to bed. Hope kept replaying those words in her head for minutes, or maybe hours, and her heart broke a little each time. After replaying it enough that she felt tears stinging her eyes, she stood up slowly not to wake Lizzie up and turn off the TV. After going to her bedroom and laying on the bed, Hope’s mind couldn’t turn off the pain in the girl’s voice. Hope wished she could do something to show her that she was meant to be loved.

* * *

“Good morning, sunshine.” Hope said poking Lizzie. Lizzie grunted and opened her eyes. She looked at the clock on the wall.

“It’s 7:30 am, Hope. This is an ungodly hour to wake me up.” Lizzie said pushing Hope away and turning around on the couch. She heard Hope laughing.

“The kids are already up and I made breakfast. Come on and stop being a whining baby.” Hope said poking Lizzie again.

“I dislike you right now.” Lizzie groaned and stood up following Hope back to the kitchen where Alyssa and Pedro were already eating. “Good morning, Alyssa. Good morning, Pedro.” Lizzie said earning a bright look from Pedro and an annoyed one from Alyssa. Lizzie frowned. _So much for bonding time last night before pizza_.

“Why is that that they get a good morning and I get a punch on the face?” Hope said joking.

“I didn’t punch you on the face. I only pushed you away.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“I have an idea.” Hope said and Lizzie, mouth full of cereal, sighed. Hope looked annoyed at her and continued. “Since you two will be spending 4th of July with us, I have to go to Walmart to buy groceries. We could all go together and buy some decoration too.” Hope said happy.

“It’s not Christmas, Hope. We don’t need decoration.” Lizzie said.

“We don’t need but we can have.” Hope said winking at Lizzie. “What do you think?” Hope asked the kids. Alyssa didn’t even look at her but Pedro’s eyes shined.

“We can make a dinosaur decoration.” Pedro said with all his 4 years old innocence. Lizzie noticed Alyssa’s eyes softening.

“We can.” Hope said smiling brightly and Lizzie’s stomach twisted at the sight of it. She looked away and found Alyssa’s eyes; too mature for her age. “It’s settled then. After breakfast, we go.” When they were almost finishing breakfast, the doorbell rang. Hope went to the door and came back a few minutes later with a box. “Josie’s gift, I suppose.” Hope said smirking at Lizzie. “Why does she give 4th of July gifts anyway?”

“She just loves an excuse to send gifts to people.” Lizzie said standing up and helping Hope to open the box on the kitchen counter.

“Who’s Josie?” Pedro asked walking to Lizzie and raising his arms for her to pick him up and see the gift. Lizzie picked him up and put him beside the box on the counter.

“My sister.” Lizzie said.

“A painting.” Hope screamed laughing like a crazy woman. Lizzie frowned at her.

“What’s so funny?”

“Remember last month when I had to go to Paris to bring a prisoner and I met Josie?” Hope asked smiling.

“Yeah.”

“There was this guy in a park next to my hotel that was painting _the future_.” Hope said air quoting the last part. “Josie convinced me to get a painting, so I let him _feel my aura_ and waited for him to finish but I got a call and had to go. Josie, apparently, waited because that’s the painting.” Hope said showing Lizzie. Lizzie tilted her head.

“So your future is a black box?” Lizzie asked frowning.

“Maybe there’s pirate gold inside the box.” Hope said raising her eyebrow.

“Maybe it’s a coffin.” Lizzie said.

“Ouch. We can never win with you, huh, Lizzie?” Hope said laughing.

“I don’t believe in fortune telling.” Lizzie said.

“I know.”

“It’s way too general and it can be interpreted in many ways.”

“I know.”

“And a believer brain like yours will keep looking, unconsciously, for a meaning to the black box. Eventually it will affect your actions and you will be the one to give a meaning to a non-important black box that you get in the future. It’s almost like conditioned behavior. You want the subject to act in a certain way and you make sure of it by conditioning them to it.”

“I know, Lizzie.” Hope said laughing. “Relax. It’s just a painting of a black box.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Lizzie narrowed her eyes.

“This painting is ugly.” Pedro said wrinkling his nose cutely. “I could do better.”

“I agree with you, Pedro. Later today I’ll take you to Hope’s Art Studio and you can paint a better one. What do you think?” Lizzie asked, eyes softening as she watched the boy clap his hands excitedly.

“I love to draw. I have a box of Crayons.” He babbled.

“Anyway...” Hope said smiling fondly. "let’s get ready and when we come back you can draw and paint whatever you want.” She said bringing Pedro down from the counter. Lizzie was aware of Alyssa’s attention focused on them. When Hope went upstairs with Pedro to get ready to go to Walmart, Alyssa finally spoke.

“Don’t buy him anything new.”

“What?” Lizzie asked confused.

“If you buy something new for him when we get placed in a new foster home, the older kids will see the new things and will take it. If you want to give him something, give him something already used. He’ll love it anyway.” Alyssa said turning around to leave.

“I don’t think this is going to be a problem this time.” Lizzie whispered thinking about Hope and Alyssa only huffed and went to the bedroom.

* * *

The day was amazing. They went to Walmart and bought funny dinosaur’s decorations and food. When they arrived home, they hung the red and blue dinosaurs everywhere and made dinosaur shaped cookies. Lizzie took Pedro to the guest house where Hope used as studio and he fell in love with all the paints and brushes and canvases. Hope and the boy spent hours in there and Lizzie watched TV with Alyssa. It was like they had been doing this forever. Like Alyssa and Pedro were theirs and this was their routine. After Hope and Pedro came back to the house covered in paint and laughing, Lizzie narrowed her eyes at them and picked Pedro up and spend the next hour trying to clean the paint from his body while he played in the bathtub. When she finished, she was wet from head to toe and Hope found it incredibly adorable. After that, Hope cooked dinner and Pedro almost didn’t finish eating before sleeping. Hope took him upstairs, brushed his teeth and put him to bed. Hope, Lizzie and Alyssa then started watching TV and not long after that, Lizzie was also sleeping. Alyssa then went to sleep and Hope too turned everything off and went to her bed. The next day would be more of the same and yet totally new. Hope would make breakfast and poke Lizzie awake. They would play and watch movies and Hope would even catch Alyssa smiling once or twice. Then they would eat and Pedro and Lizzie would sleep and Alyssa and Hope would watch the TV in a comfortable silence until they went back upstairs to sleep and wake up to a new day like that. Except that the next day wouldn’t be like that because the next day would be Monday and Rachel would come to collect them and bring them to some foster house that wouldn’t give them the love they needed. Hope couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen.

* * *

“What is it?” Hope asked when she heard Lizzie calling her name.

“It’s Alyssa. She ran away.” Lizzie said.

“What do you mean ran away?” Hope asked jumping out of bed. She looked at the clock to see that it was still dark. 4am.

“I knew she was planning something. I just didn’t think she would do this.” Lizzie said blaming herself. She should’ve guessed that Alyssa would do something like this. The only reason she hadn’t given it some consideration was the fact that Alyssa loved Pedro too much to leave him and she had never done something like that before.

“Where’s Pedro?” Hope asked already going to the bedroom the kids were sharing.

“Still sleeping. She stole your car.” Lizzie said worried.

“Oh my god. What do we do?”

“I would say call the police and warn them but I think that’s exactly what she wants.” Lizzie said just now realizing Alyssa’s plans. “I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Call Maya and ask her to track your car. Your car is new and it has a GPS tracker. Don’t tell her why.” Lizzie said. After Maya sent them the location of the car and Hope asked her neighbor for their car, they went to look for Alyssa.

“How does she even know how to drive?” Hope whispered not to wake Pedro on the backseat.

“I have no idea.” Lizzie whispered back still blaming herself. When they found Hope’s car not far from Hope’s house and Alyssa in there crying, Lizzie felt relieve like she had never felt. “I’ll drive her home. We meet back at the house.” Lizzie said leaving the car and going to Hope’s car. Alyssa didn’t look at her. “Go to the other seat, kiddo.” She said to Alyssa that only obeyed. As Lizzie drove back to Hope’s place, Alyssa’s sobs intensified. After Pedro was back on the bed and the three of them were at the living room, Lizzie finally spoke.

“That was a terrible plan, Alyssa.” To what they girl said nothing. Lizzie looked at Hope.

“You could have hurt yourself.” Hope said trying to reach for Alyssa’s hand just for the girl to recoil like a scared animal.

“Why would you do this, sweetie?” Lizzie asked softly; her voice trying to hide the wavering and the fear she felt when she woke up to drink some water and saw Hope’s car gone and Alyssa not on the bed.

“Pedro is so sweet and nice and good. He never complains when he doesn’t get gifts for his birthday and Christmas. He’s always smiling and he loves sandwiches. He likes to paint and draw and he never cries when the older kids steal his colored pencils or his crayons. He needs a family. Parents that love him and will teach him how to ride a bike. Someone to tell him goodnight stories and to take his picture on his first day of school.” Alyssa said pointing at Hope’s picture of when she was about six years old holding a little plaque that read _‘Hope’s first day on 1 st grade’ _hanging on the wall. “He needs someone to put gifts under the tree on Christmas and tell him it was Santa so he can believe Santa is real for as long as it’s possible. And when he’s older, if he decides that he wants to be a teacher or an astronaut or a doctor, he’ll have a family supporting him and saying that he can be whatever he decides to be and he will be. But he won’t have this opportunity if I’m around.” Alyssa finished sobbing.

“Alyssa…” Lizzie tried but now that the dam was open, they would have to wait for Alyssa to put it all out. Hope looked at Lizzie with glowing eyes and Lizzie tried har hardest to hold back tears.

“They don’t want me. I’m too difficult and I’m not funny or cute. I beat up other kids when I’m angry and I don’t know how to enjoy things. I just don’t know. I'm bad.” She said shaking her head in despair.

“So your plan was to do something so bad that you would be sent to juvie and Pedro would be free to be adopted without you.” Lizzie said sad and Alyssa nodded. “Oh, sweetie.”

“Alyssa, look at me.” Hope said and Alyssa finally looked at her. “Tell me who told you that you're bad.”

“I can’t.” Alyssa said shaking her head and still crying.

“Yes, you can.” Lizzie said and Alyssa nodded too weak to fight again.

“The other social worker. Not Rachel. Miss Clarke.” Alyssa added to clarify. “She told me that the reason that we were always jumping from foster place to foster place was because of me. That I was a delinquent and she would make sure that I would never find a family that loved me. But it’s my fault she said that.”

“Why do you think it’s your fault?” Hope asked calmly. Lizzie, however, noticed how her eyes glowed with anger.

“I saw her beating up one kid when I was sneaking around and she noticed that I saw her.” She whispered afraid.

“How long ago was this, Alyssa?”

“Last year.”

“And since then, you’ve been acting up.” Lizzie said finally understanding the whole story.

“I just want Pedro to be happy.” She said and started crying again.

“Why did you stop then?” Lizzie asked frowning.

“What?” Alyssa and Hope asked at the same time, surprise overcoming Hope's anger and Alyssa's tears.

“You stole Hope’s car because you thought that we would call the police on you and you’d be sent to juvie. But when we found you, you were in the car crying. Why?”

“Lizzie!” Hope hissed widening her eyes at Lizzie.

“I just wanna know.” Lizzie said and Alyssa looked away.

“I don’t know.” She whispered but Lizzie knew that she just wasn’t ready to talk. That was okay. Lizzie could wait. “Can you ask Rachel to move us to another state so I won’t have to see miss Clarke again?” Alyssa asked almost too afraid of the answer.

“I could try.” Hope said. “But it’s going to be difficult to move you to another state.” She said looking at Lizzie now. Lizzie already suspected she would do this. It wasn’t a surprise. Hope were always a family person. Lizzie nodded at her with a soft smile.

“Why?” Alyssa asked.

“I’ll let Rachel explain for you when she gets here, okay?” Hope said and Alyssa nodded.

After all of that, none of them went back to sleep. They stayed in the living room. Lizzie took her laptop and started to write a report about Alyssa. Not that she needed to do this, but this was her way of dealing with things. She had to write it off in a report that no one would ever read. It was kind of a diary for her. She also used the time to send a few emails and get some work done. Hope settled for a book and Alyssa watched TV. When Pedro woke up, they ate breakfast and Lizzie noticed that he wasn’t as happy as he was yesterday. She supposed that he knew that today Rachel would come to pick him and Alyssa and take them somewhere else.

When Rachel arrived at the house, she asked to talk to Hope alone for some time. Lizzie waited for them in the living room watching TV with the kids. She noticed that Alyssa kept glancing at the door. Lizzie smiled.

“You shouldn’t be worried.”

“They’re in there deciding my future. Tell me why I shouldn’t be worried?” Alyssa snapped before she could stop herself, then she looked at Lizzie apologetic. Lizzie waved it off laughing.

“You’re right.” She said looking at Pedro and then back at Alyssa. “What I meant is that you don’t need to be worried because you’re going to like what they’re deciding.”

“And why is that?” Alyssa asked frowning as Hope finally entered the living room.

“Rachel wants to talk to you, Alyssa.” Hope said smiling and Lizzie smiled reassuringly at Alyssa.

“Go there, girl.” She said and when Alyssa finally left the room, Hope looked at Lizzie.

“I just talked to Rachel and I’ve decided to- to” Hope started and Lizzie grinned.

“I know.”

“There’s no way you can possibly know.” Hope threw herself on the couch and rolled her eyes.

“But I do.”

“No, you don’t.” Hope said cheekily.

“Wanna bet?” Lizzie asked beaming.

“No.” Hope said rolling her eyes after a few seconds. Then she glanced at Pedro. “Do you think I’m ready?” She whispered.

“Definitely not.” Lizzie exclaimed. “But who is?”

* * *

_Next Chapter_

_“A fire?” Hope looked up from her computer. “I don’t usually deal with fires.”_

_“This one is different.” Her captain said giving her the pictures._

_“Ew. You could’ve warned that it was a human torch before showing it to me.” Hope said disgusted. She really hated burn wounds._

_“And it’s not the first case.” He said giving Hope a pile of files. Hope looked at some of the pictures and then back at her captain. She was about to ask more when she heard commotion outside her office. A few seconds later Lizzie busted in._

_“We have a serial killer!” She screamed excitedly._

_“Should she be so happy about a serial killer?” Hope’s captain asked._

_“No, she shouldn’t.” Hope said shaking her head._

_“And it’s also arson. Do you know what that means?” Lizzie asked smirking and Hope grunted._

_“No!”_

_“Yes!” Lizzie shouted._

_“What does it mean?” Her captain asked._

_“Headache. That’s what it means.” And like it was rehearsed to perfection; it probably was, as soon as those words left Hope’s mouth, the door to Hope’s office opened revealing no other than Josie Saltzman._

_“We have a serial killer, Jo.” Lizzie exclaimed hugging her sister._

_“Who happens to be a serial arsonist, I know.” Josie exclaimed back as excited as Lizzie. “That’s why I’m here.”_

_“Captain, that’s the FBI’s expert in arson, Josie Saltzman.” Hope said standing up and introducing them._

_“Oh god. They’re sisters?” He asked horrified; his mind probably bringing back gossips about Josie and adding up to the gossips about Lizzie._

_“Twins.” Hope said nodding; her own mind conjuring up the last time the three of them worked together._

_“I feel like now would be a great moment to retire.” He said pitying Hope. Hope couldn’t agree more_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think? 
> 
> PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS
> 
> Are you excited about next chapter? Josie is amazing. ahahaha


	4. Arson, Spies and Superheroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope, Lizzie and Josie have to deal with a serial killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooops, this one is long hahaha I hope you like it, though.
> 
> I have this little problem of wanting to fact-chenck and make sure it's understandable and logical and just me explaing is half of it. 
> 
> I REALLY REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE IT.
> 
> This chapter we have a little throwback to what happened to Hope and Lizzie in the past.

“Alyssa, I don’t want to come home to another sitter giving up, okay?” Hope tried and Alyssa only shrugged. Alyssa and Pedro had been living with Hope for three weeks now and after taking two weeks off to bond with the kids Hope had to go back to work. She had started back last week and Alyssa had already driven two sitters crazy. Hope couldn’t wait for classes to begin. Good mother she was going to be, having her children for less than a month and already thinking about sending them off to military school. “Can you promise me that?”

“No.” Alyssa said and Hope had to admit that her honesty was refreshing. Hope sighed.

“Can you promise me to try?” Hope asked softly and Alyssa looked away.

“Maybe.” She said.

“It’s enough.” Hope said turning around as a tower of children’s blocks crashed when Pedro hit it. Hope winced. “Are you okay, Pedro?” Hope asked when the little boy emerged from under the blocks.

“Yes, Hope.” He said laughing and Hope smiled softly shaking her head. Pedro was an energetic child. When the sitter arrived and Hope showed her the house and introduced her to Alyssa and Pedro, Hope called them both to talk.

“I have to work but I’ll call you later to check if everything’s okay.” Hope said looking at them.

“I’ll behave.” Pedro shouted enthusiastically.

“I’m sure you will.” Hope said and Pedro hugged her.

“I’ll miss you, Hope.” And when Hope was about to say she would miss him too, he turned around and went to the blocks, all thoughts about missing Hope forgotten. Hope frowned and then looked at Alyssa. “I’m sure he’ll miss me.” She said sarcastically leaving the house. When Hope arrived at work, Maya spotted her and came closer. She looked Hope up and down and laughed. “Motherhood aged you ten years.”

“Funny, Maya.” Hope said rolling her eyes.

“Just saying. Not that it doesn’t fit you. On the contrary, it made you hotter.” Maya said winking and Hope laughed at her flirty friend. Maya would flirt with a brick wall if it was possible.

“Glad to know that I aged well.” Hope said parting ways with Maya and going to her office. She started working on some reports she had to write and a couple of hours went by quickly.

“I need you to work on an Arson case.” Her captain said entering her office.

“A fire?” Hope looked up from her computer. “We don’t usually deal with fires.”

“This one is different.” Her captain said giving her the pictures.

“Ew. You could’ve warned that it was a human torch before showing it to me.” Hope said disgusted. She really hated burn wounds.

“And it’s not the first case.” He said giving Hope a pile of files. Hope looked at some of the pictures and then back at her captain. She was about to ask more when she heard commotion outside her office. A few seconds later Lizzie busted in.

“We have a serial killer!” She screamed excitedly.

“Should she be so happy about a serial killer?” Hope’s captain asked.

“No, she shouldn’t.” Hope said shaking her head.

“And it’s also arson. Do you know what that means?” Lizzie asked smirking and Hope grunted.

“No!”

“Yes!” Lizzie shouted.

“What does it mean?” Her captain asked.

“Headache. That’s what it means.” And like it was rehearsed to perfection; it probably was, as soon as those words left Hope’s mouth, the door to Hope’s office opened revealing no other than Josie Saltzman.

“We have a serial killer, Jo.” Lizzie exclaimed hugging her sister.

“Who happens to be a serial arsonist, I know.” Josie exclaimed back as excited as Lizzie. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Captain, that’s the FBI’s expert in arson, Josie Saltzman.” Hope said standing up and introducing them.

“Oh god. They’re sisters?” He asked horrified; his mind probably bringing back gossips about Josie and adding up to the gossips about Lizzie.

“Twins.” Hope said nodding; her own mind conjuring up the last time the three of them worked together.

“I feel like now would be a great moment to retire.” He said pitying Hope. Hope couldn’t agree more. “I’ll leave you to deal with them.” He said walking to the door. “Saltzmans.” He nodded to Josie and Lizzie. When he left the office closing the door after him, Josie came to Hope and hugged her.

“I missed you.” Josie said and then struck her on the arm.

“What’s that for?” Hope asked scowling.

“For not telling me about the kids. I had to hear it from Lizzie.” Josie said giving Hope a look that indicated that hearing things from Lizzie was not what she expected. Lizzie frowned.

“What are you doing here anyway? Last time I heard from you, you were in Europe.” Hope said going back to her chair and sitting down.

“I took a few days off to come and get to know my nephew and niece.” She said giving Hope another glare that indicated that she was mad at Hope for not inviting her. “When my plan arrived here a couple of hours ago, I got a call from my boss asking me to work on this one. Then she called your boss and asked him to put you on this case so I can work and have family time together because us women can multitask. Her words not mine.” Josie said.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Lizzie said happy.

“Me too.” Hope said.

“Tell me about them.” Josie asked and Hope took the files that her captain had left on her tabled and opened, giving it a quickly read.

“Five men. All tied up to a pole and burned. Autopsy and lab analysis says that-”

“I don’t wanna know about the case. I’ve read the reports. I wanna know about the kids.” Josie asked excited and Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“We do have a serial killer to catch.” She said, nothing but matter-of-factness to her tone but Hope saw through it anyway.

“She’s right, Josie. We can talk about it later.” Hope said, a tilted head being everything Josie needed to understand and nod.

“Yes, of course. Let’s check the last fire’s place. The firefighters are just finishing checking the structural integrity of the place so the cops and the feds can get in.” Josie said standing up and going to the door. Hope and Lizzie followed her.

“I have to go upstairs to sign a release term to one of my patients and I’ll meet you at your car.” Lizzie said taking the elevator to her office’s floor. When Hope and Josie entered another elevator, Josie looked at Hope.

“Is she still refusing to talk about it?” Josie asked worried.

“You can say so.” Hope said.

“What does that mean?” Josie frowned.

“If pretending that it never happened can be added to the refusing to talk category, so yes, she is refusing to talk.” Hope said quietly. She didn’t feel comfortable discussing Lizzie with her sister but Josie always asked anyway.

“You have to do something, Hope.” Josie said a little accusatory.

“Me?” Hope asked and then laughed desperately. “Really, Josie? Don’t you think I’ve been trying for the past five years?”

“I know you have.” Josie sighed. “It’s not fair of me to do this to you. But do you think it’s healthy that they keep letting her work in cases like this?”

“They let her do whatever she wants here.” Hope exclaimed.

“Why?” Josie asked confused.

“I don’t know. It’s not like she’s charming or something.” Hope said. “Did she tell you that she’s the head psychologist of this building?”

“No!” Josie shouted.

“Well, she is.” Hope said raising her eyebrows and leaving the elevator. “Are you coming with us or did you rent a car?”

“I rented a car but I'll go with you.” Josie said showing Hope the keys. “Since when?” Josie asked and Hope tilted her head questioning. “Since when she’s the head psychologist here?”

“Oh, about five months since the old one retired. I think she had something to do with his retirement.” Hope frowned. Lizzie never really liked her old superior. It was very much like her to find a way to get him retired.

“You think?” Josie asked sarcastically.

“I’m pretty sure.” Hope said grinning and Josie rolled her eyes.

“You like it. You like the way she acts and you enable it.” Josie said and Hope only laughed. When Lizzie joined them in Hope’s car and they left the building, Josie tried to talk to Lizzie. “Why are you working on this case? I thought that only Hope would work with me.” She asked.

“They partnered us up about a month ago.” Lizzie said and Hope watched through the rearview as Josie’s eyes widened.

“Why none of you thought about telling me that?” Josie asked.

“I thought that Lizzie would tell you.” Hope said at the same time Lizzie said: “I thought Hope would tell you since you two are always gossiping about me.”

“We’re not!” Hope said just for Josie to huff.

“Of course we are. We wouldn’t need to if you just talked to us.” Josie said, her head popping between the front seats where Hope and Lizzie were. Hope realized that Lizzie’s hand went to her scar and started to trace it over her blouse; the sign that she was feeling anxious.

“Are you staying in a hotel, Josie?” Hope asked deflecting the conversation and Lizzie glanced at her thankful.

“No. I’m staying with you.” Josie said and Hope laughed.

“Thanks for the heads up.” Hope said eyeing Lizzie. 

“Sure.” 

When they arrived at the crime scene, the coroner was already examining the body. Hope looked around but everything was burned so she didn’t have a lot of things to do anyway. Josie went to talk to the Arson Inspector from the firefighter department to know the origin point of the fire and Lizzie walked around.

“What can you tell me?” Hope asked the coroner looking at the body.

“Male. Late thirties. No identification. Tied to a pole just like the other victims. The wrist is broken which indicates that he tried to free himself from the cuffs.” He said pointing at the wrist of the corpse.

“Cause of death?” Lizzie asked from behind Hope and then came closer to the body to inspect it. The coroner looked at her and then at Hope. Then he looked around and back at the body. When he looked back at Lizzie, his face clearly showed utter confusion. Hope held her laugh and glanced at Josie, that had come close to them when she heard Lizzie’s question.

“The man was burned to death.” He said nervous and not so sure of himself. Lizzie looked around and Hope could practically see her brain working things out. In a few minutes she would say something that would make the coroner hate her a little more, something that would make Josie surprised and Hope proud.

“Are you sure?” Lizzie asked and Hope had to look away not to laugh at the man’s anguished face.

“Not anymore.” He said reluctantly and Lizzie nodded.

“Good, because I believe you’re wrong.” Lizzie humbly put. Hope narrowed her eyes; Lizzie never say anything humbly. 

“Then what’s the cause of death?” Josie asked curious.

“I would say cyanide poisoning.” Lizzie said.

“Then it must be it.” The coroner said sighing and standing up. “I already finished here. I’ll take the body to the morgue and send a sample to the lab and ask them to test for hydrogen cyanide.” He turned around and called the assistants to collect the body.

“Don’t beat yourself up.” Lizzie said softly and Hope rolled her eyes at Lizzie being a bitch. “20% to 40% of the general population don’t carry the necessary gene to detect hydrogen cyanide.” Lizzie finished giving the coroner a sweet fake smile. That was it; the condescending face that made people dislike Lizzie at first. And also at second and third and forever if they never got to know Lizzie. When they left the building, Hope cackled.

“Lizzie, was that really necessary?” She asked shaking her head. Lizzie smirked.

“Yes.” She said proud.

“I do carry the gene that allows me to detect hydrogen cyanide because I already did it before. How come I didn’t smell it?” Josie asked frowning. Lizzie stopped on her tracks and gave the building they just left a contemplative look before turning to Josie.

“Hope’s perfume.” Lizzie said looking back at the building. “Hope changed her perfume last month and it’s the first time you get to smell her new scent. Our brains tend to memorize smells better than any other sense. Your brain was probably unconsciously paying attention to Hope’s new scent and that distracted you from noticing the almond smell of the hydrogen cyanide.” Lizzie said distracted and tilting her head at the building. Josie gave Hope a look and Hope only shrugged because Lizzie was Lizzie and Josie, of all people, shouldn’t be surprised anymore.

“What’s wrong that you keep looking at the building?” Hope asked getting Lizzie’s attention.

“This is not our serial killer.” Lizzie said casually and then entered the car. When they were all inside, Josie was the first to ask.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve read the other files of this killer and I also corrected the psychological profile that they made. This is not the same.”

“So it’s a copycat?” Hope asked frowning. This serial killer wasn’t famous enough to have a copycat yet.

“No. More like a framing.” Lizzie said. “Someone killed that man, tied him to the pole and burned the building to cover up.”

“That’s not good.” Josie said looking outside at the reporters surrounding the building and Lizzie nodded.

“It’s not. New serial killers, the ones that are not too famous yet, don’t usually appreciate copycats.”

“And that could cause them to get out of control and kill again.” Hope finished and they nodded.

“Let’s head back to the bureau and see what we have. Let’s try to foresee the actions of our serial killer and also compare the pictures of the crime scenes and bodies from the serial killer and our new killer.” Lizzie said and Hope sighed tiredly.

“It’s going to be a long night.” She said.

* * *

It would be a terribly long night at the office. That’s why Lizzie suggested to go to Hope’s place after they had spent the last three hours reading about the cases and the victims. Hope was relieved when Lizzie suggested it and Josie was excited to meet the kids. It was a good choice. One that had nothing to do with the fact that Lizzie hadn’t seen Alyssa and Pedro for four days and she was missing them. When they finally arrived at Hope’s place and Pedro came running and hugged her, she admitted that maybe her reasons had something to do with Pedro’s excited face.

“You’re here, Lizzie.” Pedro said jumping around her. Maybe it had something to do with Alyssa’s concealed smile when Lizzie looked at her.

“Yes, I’m here. And I brough someone special to meet you.” Lizzie said kneeling and hugging Pedro. “This is Josie, my sister.” Lizzie pointed at Josie and Pedro’s eyes lit up.

“You can call me aunt Josie.” Josie said also kneeling and Lizzie gave her a glare. “I heard that you like to draw and paint. Is that right?” She asked.

“Yes. Just like Hope. She took me to her studio a lot of times and we painted together.” Pedro babbled excited.

“So you’re going to like the gift I got you.” Josie said opening her bag and giving Pedro a gift. Lizzie noticed that he looked suspiciously at it before taking it and shredding the wrapping bag to pieces. “It a dinosaur pajama. You see these markers? You can paint the pajama whatever you like it and it won’t wash away.” Josie finished.

“I love it.” He said hugging Josie and turning to Hope. “Hope, can I paint it now?”

“Yes, Pedro, but just till dinner’s ready. Now aren’t you forgetting a special word to Josie?” Hope raised an eyebrow at Pedro. He turned back to Josie.

“Thank you, aunt Josie.” He said turning away and going to the living room to paint his pajamas. The sitter, after saying that the kids had behaved, left and Lizzie went to Alyssa that hadn’t come closer to them.

“Do you feel like meeting my sister?” Lizzie asked quietly.

“If I don’t feel like meeting her, will I have to meet her anyway?” Alyssa asked making sure to say low enough that Josie wouldn’t hear it, Lizzie noticed. Alyssa was afraid that Lizzie wouldn’t like it if Alyssa made Josie feel uncomfortable. 

“Yes, because it’s the polite thing to do since she came all the way from Europe to meet you.” Lizzie said giving Alyssa a glare.

“Hope says you’re not polite. Why do I have to be?” Alyssa said tilting her head.

“Well, Hope also believes in ghosts. I mean, can we even attribute her credibility?” Lizzie said and Alyssa laughed. It wasn’t loud or giggly but it was a laugh and Lizzie loved it.

“Can you two stop with the discrediting me thing and go talk to Josie?” Hope said snapping both Lizzie and Alyssa out of their talk. Alyssa nodded and walked to Josie.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you, Alyssa.” Josie smiled. “I got you a little something too.” Josie said giving Alyssa a gift. Lizzie half expected the girl to throw the gift on Josie’s face and run upstairs but she took the gift and opened it. “It’s mine and Lizzie’s favorite book when we were your age.”

“Nancy Drew.” Lizzie guessed and Josie nodded. “You gonna love it and if you don’t you can read it again and make yourself love it.”

“Lizzie!” Hope said rolling her eyes.

“Thank you.” Alyssa said to Josie, then turned around and went to the living room after Pedro.

“They are the cutest.” Josie said with glinting eyes and Hope smiled proudly as if she had made them herself alone with the labor of her hands. Lizzie almost laughed.

“I’ll cook us something while you go upstairs and unpack your things. Since Alyssa and Pedro are sharing the bedroom besides mine, you can use the one at the end of the corridor.” Hope said going to the kitchen.

“Thank you.” Josie said and then turned to Lizzie. “Help me?” When they went upstairs and started unpacking, Josie started the conversation Lizzie was expecting her to since she had arrived at their building earlier today. “Lizzie, when I pictured Hope with kids, I always thought of the two of you together.” Lizzie huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Every time…”

“I just wanna know why.”

“… that you come visit you do this. Do you have a checklist or something? One, talk to Lizzie about how she’s stupid for breaking up with Hope. _Check_. Two, talking to Hope about how Lizzie isn’t supposed to work in serial killers’ cases because she’s too fragile. _Check_. Three, pretend that Lizzie doesn’t know that I’ve been pestering Hope to know things about them. _Check_.”

“As a matter of fact, yes, I do have a checklist. That’s what happens when your sister doesn’t tell you things and you have to learn it through gossip or Hope.” Josie said finishing unpacking her few clothes. Lizzie didn’t say anything and Josie sat next to her on the bed. “Are you okay?” She asked softly.

“Yes.”

“Are you enjoying working with Hope again?”

“Maybe.” Lizzie said and Josie chuckled.

“Yes, you are. I’m happy for you.” Josie said kissing her forehead. “Now I’m going to take a shower.” She said going to the bathroom. Lizzie’s eyes snapped to the door when she saw a _shadow_. She smiled and left the bedroom looking for the _curious shadow_. When she found her, she was already downstairs in the living room with her brother. The boy was painting his new pajamas with extraordinary concentration for a four years old. Lizzie sat next to Alyssa on the couch.

“Spying, huh?” Lizzie asked.

“I went upstairs to put the book in the bedroom and I heard you talking. Are you mad that I listened?”

“No.”

“What’s a serial killer?” Alyssa asked frowning. Not the route Lizzie thought this conversation would take.

“Someone that kills people in a certain way and with certain frequency. They usually have rituals and types of victims.” Lizzie answered bluntly. Hope would probably kill her if she heard her explain a ten years old what a serial killer is.

“But you and Hope work for the FBI so you work with a lot of killers. Why is Josie worried that you’re working with serial killers then? What’s makes them different from other murderers?” Alyssa asked glancing at Pedro who was distracted with his painting.

“They are different because serial killers often have a psychopathology associated to their behavior.” Lizzie said and at Alyssa’s confused face, she explained. “They usually have a mental condition that that motivates their actions.”

“So they’re crazy?”

“Sometimes, yes. It’s up to their motivation. But mostly no, they’re not crazy. Why are you asking these questions that would make Hope kick me out of here if she caught me answering?” Lizzie asked knowing that Alyssa had heard her conversation with Josie and was wondering…

“Why does your sister think that you’re too fragile to deal with a serial killer’s case?” Alyssa asked and Lizzie almost laughed at the girl’s boldness.

“You ask a lot, you know.” Lizzie said and Alyssa gave her a little smile. “Something bad happened to me a few years ago and Josie’s just super worried all the time.” Lizzie said softly, her hand going instinctively to her scar. Alyssa’s eyes followed her movements and Lizzie sighed. “I don’t really like to talk about it.” She whispered and Alyssa nodded and looked away a little embarrassed for bringing this conversation up. “But that was okay to ask, honey.” Lizzie said to her.

“Lizzie, can you help me with something?” Hope asked from behind and Lizzie turned around quickly to find Hope at the door. Lizzie hadn’t noticed her.

“Yes, of course.” Lizzie said standing up and following Hope to the kitchen. “What do you need?”

“For you to stop explaining to Alyssa what a serial killer is, please and thank you.” Hope said giving Lizzie a look. Lizzie laughed.

“Okay.” Lizzie promised sitting on the counter like Hope likes to do.

“So Josie was annoying you.” Hope asked casually while cooking the spaghetti.

“Just the normal amount of annoyance.” Lizzie said. Hope turned to her.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“What do you think?” Lizzie asked and Hope huffed. She continued cooking and Lizzie watched her. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to talk about it. It was more like she couldn’t. Part of her thought that Hope understood and that was why she never pressed Lizzie about it. Josie, on the other hand, had that sisterly concern; the sense of duty to take care of her twin. If Lizzie were in Josie’s place, she would feel the same. That didn’t mean that Lizzie wouldn’t be bothered or sometimes even angry at Josie’s attempts at getting Lizzie to talk.

“Lizzie!” Pedro shouted and Lizzie looked down.

“What is it, Pedro?”

“I finished my painting.” He said showing her the pajamas. “Hope said it’s beautiful.” He proudly beamed and Lizzie glanced at Hope that was nodding. Beautiful wouldn’t be the word Lizzie would use. Explosion of color maybe.

“It’s amazing.” Lizzie lied jumping from the counter and helping Hope to finish putting the things on the table. After the food was ready and they were all on the table eating, Lizzie couldn’t shake this feeling of belong with them. She heard Pedro chattering about his day and Hope helping him to eat and Alyssa glancing at them with suspicious eyes. When Hope realized it, she shifted her attention to Alyssa and even if she didn’t show it, Lizzie knew she loved it. Josie watched it with such wonder and when she thought that Lizzie wasn’t paying attention, Josie looked at her with sadness in her eyes and Lizzie ignored it because that was what she did better.

After they finished and Hope put the kids on bed, they went to the living room and scattered the files from the cases on the ground. They read it all over and studied the psychological profile of the serial killer. They were going over the methodology of the crime when something caught Lizzie’s attention.

“What details did they release to the public?” Lizzie asked frowning. Josie picked up one of the files and read it.

“They released that they were all males in their late thirties or early forties, that they were tied to a pole and that the point of origin of the fire was about five meters away from the body.” Josie answered.

“How about the way the bodies were positioned on the pole? Hands tied above head, legs apart and behind and a headband on the head to keep it from turning sideways?” Lizzie questioned Josie.

“No. Only agents knew about the headband.” Josie answered. “Why?”

“That’s it. How would they know how to position the body on the pole?” Lizzie asked looking at them. “Our killer is someone that worked on the case. The killer is an agent.”

“Shit.” Hope sighed. “I’ll pull a list of the people working on this case.” She said opening her computer and logging into the FBI’s system. After a few minutes she turned the computer to them. Lizzie and Josie gave it a quick read.

“Cross reference with the word cyanide. I think you’ll find something.” Lizzie said standing up. “I’ll go change my clothes since we’ll stay here the whole night.”

* * *

“Did you find anything after crossing references?” Josie asked Hope.

“Yeah. One of the agents on the list was part of a mission. It says that they used to carry cyanide pills in case they were caught.” Hope said shaking her head.

“How could Lizzie know that we would find something?” Josie wondered stunned.

“I don’t know. Most of the times she just says things with confidence.” Hope said quoting what Lizzie herself had told her a few days after they met.

“It’s not just confidence when it turns out to be right every single time.” Josie said rolling her eyes. “If she wasn’t so confident, she wouldn’t put herself in so many dangerous situations.”

“She isn’t, you know, that confident. And you have to trust her.” Hope tried. The twins’ relationship had ever been a little rocky but it had gotten worse since Lizzie’s ordeal five years ago.

“Says the person that has a tracker on her.” Josie snapped back and Hope looked away. She didn’t really want to fight with Josie right now. She ignored Josie until Lizzie came back to the room. As soon as she entered the living room, she seemed to notice the change in the air. She looked at Josie and then at Hope before sitting on the couch and asking.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yes. When I crossed reference like you suggested, one agent came up. Apparently, she was part of a mission and the cyanide pills were used when someone gets captured.” Hope answered.

“What was the mission?” Lizzie asked.

“Most of the file is redacted but It’s definitely espionage.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded.

“Call Kennedy Phillips from the NSA and ask about it.” Lizzie suggested.

“Kennedy Phillips as in NSA’s director?” Josie asked taking the words out of Hope’s mouth.

“Why would she tell me anything? I don’t even know her.” Hope asked confused.

“Tell her that you know about the duckies.” Lizzie said shrugging and Hope knew better than not to trust her, so she opened her phone. “Take it. It’s her personal number.” Lizzie said giving Hope her phone and Hope stared at it for a moment before taking it.

“Why the hell do you have the NSA’s director personal number?” Josie asked and Lizzie only shrugged again. Hope hit call and put it on speaker.

“Hello?” Hope heard from the other side.

“I’m agent Hope Mikaelson from the FBI. I would like to request the unredacted file from mission F-00K78R3.”

“Why would I give you what you’re asking for?” The woman sounded angry. Hope narrowed her eyes at Lizzie and she only smiled. Hope would kill her.

“Because I know about the duckies.” Hope tried and watched as Lizzie put her hands over her mouth to prevent a laugh to escape.

“Hope Mikaelson you said?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll send it to you in the morning. Do you need something else?” The woman asked to Hope’s surprise. Lizzie was smiling smugly at Hope.

“No.” Hope said.

“Okay. Can you make me a favor, agent Mikaelson? Tell Doctor Saltzman that next time she needs something, she can call me herself.” She said hanging up.

“What just happened?” Hope asked.

“You just got the information you needed.” Lizzie said. “Now that we solved this, let’s examine the serial killer’s case again.”

“How did you know?” Josie asked and Lizzie raised an eyebrow in question. “How did you know that crossing reference would get results?” Josie frowned.

“The bones of the hand of the body we found earlier had old torture marks. That and the smell of cyanide screams espionage. When I realized that the killer knew information that wasn’t released to the public about the position of the body on the pole, I knew that it would be someone that both worked on the serial killer’s case and knew our victim which means they were a spy too. Although, it’s strange because spies don’t usually work in pairs.” Lizzie frowned. Josie accepted the answer and they went back to read the files of the other victims. They had two cases on their hands and time was short. If the serial killer were a narcissist, they wouldn’t like a copycat and soon another victim would be found. Hope was reading the psychological profile for the third time when she noticed that Lizzie had fallen asleep. When she looked at the clock, she was surprised to see that it was past 3 am. Hope looked at Josie and she was yawning. It was time to rest.

“Let’s get some sleep. We won’t find anything if we’re tired.” Hope said starting to pick the files up. When she finished collecting them with Josie’s help, Hope turned off the lights and they went upstairs. “Goodnight, Josie.”

“Goodnight, Hope.” Josie said entering the bedroom. When Hope was about to enter hers, she heard a noise from the kids’ bedroom. She opened the door and saw the source of the noise: Alyssa was crying. When she noticed Hope by the door, she did exactly the opposite of what Hope expected her to do: she stubbornly stared at Hope eye on eye. Hope walked to her bed and sat on it. With only the bedside lamp’s light, Alyssa seemed way younger than she was. “What’s wrong, Alyssa?” Hope asked softly. The girl didn’t say a word. Hope didn’t know what to do. She wished she could ask Lizzie to solve this. Children were Lizzie’s thing and the irony of the fact that Hope was the one ending up with them didn’t passed unnoticed. She asked herself, for the hundredth time since she talked to Rachel about adopting them, if it was the right choice. Maybe Alyssa and Pedro would be better with someone else, she would think but the thought was easily discarded when Hope remembered what she read about the kids’ old foster houses. But Hope was afraid to mess it up like she seemed to do sometimes. Lizzie was right every time she called Hope sentimental or passionate. Hope had a tendency of letting feelings get in the way. Not that Hope would ever admit it to Lizzie but _that one time in the desert_ , she really almost got them killed because she was reacting too emotionally. _The last one standing syndrome_ , Lizzie would laugh saying that she had created a medical diagnose solely for Hope. Among all of Lizzie’s problems, not knowing when to ask for help wasn’t one of them. Even though Lizzie worried Hope all the time, she did know what she was capable of and what she wasn’t; she knew when to ask for support. Hope, however, barely acknowledge the problem at all. Alyssa was rational like Lizzie and just like Hope didn’t know what to do with a crying Lizzie, Hope couldn’t know less what to do with a crying Alyssa.

“I know I don’t have Lizzie’s way of words…” Hope tried.

“Lizzie doesn’t have any way with words.” Alyssa answered, her voice steady. Hope smiled.

“You’re right, she has the delicacy of an elephant.” Hope said. “What I meant is that I’m not like her. I can’t look at you and say what you ate for breakfast or your favorite animal. I can’t notice a strand of hair out of place and guess that you have a headache.” Hope took Alyssa hand and this time the girl flinched but didn’t recoiled. “You have to tell me. I promise to try and help you. I’m not here to foster you, Alyssa. Rachel talked to you and I know that she told you what I want. I want to adopt you; I want you to stay here. I need-”

“Why? Why do you want me to stay?” Alyssa asked the question Hope had been asking herself; the question Alyssa’s social worker, Rachel, had asked Hope when Hope told her she was interested in adopting the children.

“Honestly? I have no idea. I just looked at you and Pedro and I knew you two belonged with me but it’s okay if you don’t believe it just yet. I can wait.” Hope said tightening the hold on the girl’s hand. Alyssa nodded. “You have till Christmas to believe it, though.” Hope joked and when Alyssa noticed it, she smiled. It was the first smile Hope had gotten from her and suddenly all the doubts Hope had disappeared and were replaced by that kind of sureness some people talk about when they’re talking about their kids. Sure, Hope was still afraid that she would get some steps wrong along the way but it would turn out fine in the end. “Now sleep.” Hope said pushing the girl gently till she was laid on the bed and tucking her as if she were a small child. Before leaving the bedroom, Hope heard Alyssa’s small voice.

“Goodnight, Hope.”

“Goodnight, Alyssa.” When Hope finally laid on her bed, she felt the happiest she had felt in years. Everything would be okay.

* * *

When Josie woke up, Hope and the kids were already up. Josie went to the kids’ bedroom and watched as Hope helped Pedro to make his bed. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, auntie Josie.” Pedro said coming running to Josie and leaving Hope to make his bed alone. After hugging her, Pedro left the bedroom running and going downstairs. Josie, Hope and Alyssa followed him. When Josie arrived in the living room, Pedro was poking Lizzie. Josie found it funny how he gave up the poking so easily and jumped on her. Lizzie growled at him and for one second, Josie thought Lizzie had scared the boy but he only laughed and kept jumping on her.

“Hope, take this child away from me please.” Lizzie mumbled what only made Pedro laugh loudly. Hope went to them and picked Pedro up. Then she pulled Lizzie’s pillow from under her head and hit her face.

“Wake up.” Hope only said, leaving the living room and going to the kitchen. Josie was stunned at how familiar their routine was.

“Good morning, Lizzie.” Josie said and Lizzie only rolled her eyes. They went to the kitchen and ate breakfast. After it, Josie and Lizzie went upstairs to take a shower and get ready to go to work. Josie didn’t fail to notice that Lizzie hadn’t brought any change of clothes with her last night but today she was wearing a clean pair of plaid paints and social blouse; a sign that she kept clothes in Hope’s house.

They left the house after the sitter arrived and went to work. Josie’s job here was to find the serial killer that used fire to kill his victims but since yesterday’s fire wasn’t from its case, Josie wasn’t closer to find this psychopath than she was last week. She didn’t really like to work with psychopaths but any opportunity she had to get their asses into jail, she took it gladly. Her job was, mostly, to assess fires and give it a verdict as to if it was arson or accident. Sometimes they were victimless fires and therefore simpler. Sometimes, though, they were caused by angry ex-girlfriends or boyfriends, disturbed children or companies trying to get insurance money. Josie had to see through it all and point at the guilty. The hardest cases, in her opinion, were the hiding fires. Those were the ones caused to hide evidence of something; murder, a company fraud or even someone’s Will. This was the first time Josie was working with a serial killer. She had to impress her boss. Especially after she had caused a fire to solve a murder on the last case she worked. Lizzie’s lack of respect for authority figures and Josie’s keenness to destruction had caused them a great deal of trouble when they were teenagers. Fortunately, Josie found herself in the Firefighting Academy and started her adult life fighting crimes rather than causing them. Eventually Josie was promoted to Fire Inspector and now she had one of the highest positions in the Arson Crimes’ department as a Arson Specialist. 

When they arrived in the FBI’s building, the unredacted file for the spies’ mission was waiting for them in Hope’s office. Josie looked at her smug sister and rolled her eyes. When Hope was about to open it, her captain entered the office.

“Agent Mikaelson, why was I asked to sign a Receiving Form for a file that came direct from the NSA’s director office?” He asked narrowing his eyes at Hope.

“I asked her.” Hope said.

“Don’t believe that for one second I believed that she” he pointed at Lizzie “didn’t have anything to do with it.” He said shaking his head. “By the way, agent Jane Hartley is here. Why did you ask to call her here anyway?”

“She’s our suspect for yesterday’s murder.” Hope answered opening the file and reading it.

“She’s the serial killer?” The captain asked astonished.

“No. Actually, we believe that they are different cases. Yesterday’s fire was someone that tried to hide their crime by making it look like the other fires. This is the unfinished report of our reasoning that I wrote last night. I’ll question her now.” Hope said giving the file one last look before leaving the office. Josie took the file and followed Hope to the Interrogation Room; Lizzie right behind her. Instead of following Hope inside, they went to the annex room where they could watch it through the glass. As Hope started to question the woman, Josie started to read the file.

“Check it out, Lizzie. The spies were working inside the USA’s government. Their job was to find other spies.” Josie whispered. “They spent four years undercover as a couple but they didn’t find any spy so the mission was dissolved and they were sent to work in the government agencies. Why would they kill him if they didn’t find anything?” Josie asked and when she looked at Lizzie she had the thinking face on. Josie followed her gaze to the woman Hope was interrogating, Jane. Lizzie looked at her face, at her hands and at her feet. Josie saw the exact moment Lizzie found out something. She looked at Josie.

“We have to tell Hope that she didn’t kill him.” Lizzie said sure, about to go to tell Hope when they heard Jane breaking down crying.

“I killed him.” Jane said.

* * *

It turned out easier than Hope thought it would be, Hope wondered when Jane said that she had killed him. For an ex-spy, this woman sure did crack up fast. Hope was about to ask her why, when the door burst open.

“She’s lying.” Lizzie said entering the room.

“How do you know that?” Josie followed her in a second later. Great. Hope’s interrogation became a circus.

“She’s pregnant.” Lizzie said. Both Hope and Josie’s eyes snapped to Jane.

“I’m not pregnant.” Jane shouted.

“You used to be a spy. You were trained to keep it cool under stress and yet the whole time Hope was interviewing you, you were nervous. Let’s not take into account that you started crying. Of course, you could be faking it. As a spy, you’ve learned how to present false information and even false feelings. I took that into account.” Lizzie said sitting on the chair besides Hope. “But then there’s the swollen feet.”

“I’m wearing sneakers.” Jane said.

“Yes. But your record said that you wear 6. The sneakers you’re wearing now are 7.” Lizzie said and Hope sighed. Here we go again.

“How could you possibly know that?” Jane exclaimed grimacing.

“Also you sent someone else’s urine to the surprise test.” Lizzie continued.

“What?” Josie asked.

“You know that we are asked to submit a urine sample so they can test it to see if it’s clean? She sent someone else’s urine instead of hers.”

“How do you know it?” Hope asked opening the woman’s record and starting to read it again.

“She had a car accident three years ago and she started having seizures. They gave her medicine that contained barbiturates for her seizures.” Lizzie opened her file on the medical record. “Look at the urine samples results. Barbiturates should appear on the test but it didn’t for the last two surprise exams you had. You didn’t stop taking your medicines because I’m a doctor and I know how bad seizures are. You wouldn’t stop them. The reason why you started to use someone’s urine is because you knew that a urine test would alert to your pregnancy and for some reason you didn’t want it.”

“Unbelievable.” Hope heard Josie whispering.

“Also, you kept adjusting yourself on the chair. I imagine that the back pain have already started and the interrogation room’s chair isn’t comfortable enough.” Lizzie finished leaving Jane speechless.

“You’re one of those, right?” Jane asked resigned. “Profilers.” She rolled her eyes. “When we were at the academy, we had courses with profilers to learn how to control our reactions.” 

“Yes. And you clearly didn’t learn well.” Lizzie said frowning. Hope glared at her and sighed tiredly. Josie was right, Hope enabled most of Lizzie’s behavior.

“Well, you only told me that she was pregnant. She could still be our killer.” Hope said to Lizzie.

“No. She wouldn’t kill the father of her baby.” Lizzie said shaking her head.

“Now how could you possibly know that?” Jane shouted a little angry.

“You just told me.” Lizzie said smiling.

“Why did you lie, Jane?” Hope asked the woman.

“Because I think that I’m next.” The woman whispered sad.

“Why?”

“One week before I found out that I was pregnant, Allan started acting weirdly. Late night calls, alcohol and blood. First, I thought that he was working in a black ops mission. I didn’t ask. I knew he couldn’t talk about it. After a few weeks, he told me that he had uncovered a mole; someone high-ranking and dangerous. He didn’t tell me whom and when I finally told him about the pregnancy, he asked me to hide it; to not even buy baby stuff. He used to be my partner and I trusted him enough to do what he told me. If the person he was after was as high-ranking as he said, they could use me and the baby as leverage against him.” Jane sighed, a tear escaping her eye. “Last week he got a letter that changed him. He started acting distant and cold. Two days ago, he left me a note on the fridge. I didn’t see him again but when I heard about the fire in the warehouse yesterday, I knew it was him.” The woman finished crying.

“Do you have the note?” Josie asked and Jane nodded opening her purse and giving Josie a paper that looked like it was folded over and over. It was clear that the woman had read that multiple times. After Josie finished reading, she gave it to Hope. Hope noticed Lizzie reading it from behind her. It was a simple note husbands and wives usually leave each other.

**_I FORGOT TO BUY MILK AND THE DOG’S FOOD. I’LL STOP BY THE GROCERIE SHOP ON THE WAY BACK FROM WORK. PLEASE PICK UP MY SUIT FROM THE DRY CLEANER. THEY MADE THE WINE STAIN DISAPPEAR. MAKE SURE TO PUT THE ALMONDS IN THE BOX BEFORE THEY’RE ROTTEN._ **

**_LOVE YOU,_ **

**_A._ **

“What’s the code?” Hope asked after reading it a second time. Lizzie looked at her proud and Hope almost blushed.

“The code?” Jane asked.

“Yes. You two were spies. Of course he left a code in this letter.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“The _dry cleaner_ means one of our old friends. The part _made the wine stain disappear_ means that the dry cleaner would make me disappear so I would be safe.” Jane explained. “But now that you brought me here, I won’t probably live till tomorrow. That’s why I told you I had killed him.”

“Because we would arrange for a transportation for you and the _dry cleaner_ could make you disappear during the transport.” Josie guessed and Jane nodded.

“But now I’ll die. I can’t even drink water here without being afraid of poison. There’s no way I’ll get out of here alive. Whoever killed Allan could be watching us right now.” Jane said pointing at the camera of the interrogation room. Hope hated internal job. She really did. And now they probably had a killer to kill this pregnant woman inside the FBI’s building?

“Let’s take her to my torture office. Some rooms even have acoustic isolation, no cameras and booby traps.” Lizzie said excited. Hope rolled her eyes.

“One, stop calling it a torture office. It’s just the place where you attend adults. Two, did the FBI really allowed you to acoustic isolate some room?” Hope asked surprised and Lizzie nodded. “And last, you’re totally joking about the booby traps.” Hope said laughing. When Lizzie didn’t laugh, Hope’s eyes widened.

“Let’s go.” Lizzie said and they left the interrogation room. When they were about to take the elevator, Lizzie stopped frowning.

“He knew he was going to die.” She wondered out loud. Hope pushed her inside the elevator and pressed the button to Lizzie’s floor. Lizzie’s floor of the building was the behavioral department. Besides her, 17 other psychologists, psychiatrists, behavior analysts and specialized detectives occupied this floor. Lizzie was the only one specialized in child behavior and development so she had two offices: one with toys, cute wallpapers and a sweet secretary that would give candy to the kids and another one with interrogation rooms, polygraph machines, EEG, MRI and fMRI machines to study the brain and even a containment cell where Lizzie was taking them. When she opened the door and pointed for Jane to get in, the woman did no such thing.

“Your idea is to lock me where I’ll be easy prey?” She asked.

“No. You’ll be safe here. It’s a containment room. We use it to make sure patients with somnambulism or dissociative identity disorder are safe. The only door is this one and we’ll be outside keeping you safe until we figure out who the killer is.” Lizzie said in that voice she used with children; the one that convinced them to trust her. Hope almost didn’t see her using this voice with adults. Jane nodded and went inside. Lizzie locked her.

“Now we wait for someone to come and kill her.” Lizzie said sitting on the couch outside the containment room and waiting.

* * *

“I can’t believe you have this much cool stuff.” Josie said after entering every single room in Lizzie’s office. Lizzie smiled. “My office is smaller than the cell Jane is in. There’s a bed and a TV in there.” Josie exclaimed.

“To make the patients calm.” Lizzie said distracted. Something was not clicking. She took her phone and called her secretary. “Hey, can you bring me three handcuffs, a pole and one of the headbands we use to keep the head steady for exams?” Lizzie asked. Hope frowned.

“Why did you ask her that?” Hope asked.

“Just to test a theory.” Lizzie said and they waited. An hour later, a striptease pole, three handcuffs and the headband were delivered there by three men and Lizzie’s secretary.

“I had to buy the pole from a striptease shop. Anything else, Doctor Saltzman?” Her secretary asked and Lizzie nodded giving her a piece of paper. Hope’s eyes narrowed but she let it go. After they were left alone, Lizzie gave the cuffs to Hope.

“Try to tie yourself on the pole.” Lizzie asked.

“Why me?” Hope complained.

“You’re the athletic one.” Josie said laughing. Hope rolled her eyes and took the cuffs and the headband.

“Go to the pole and tie your feet first just like our victims.” Lizzie said. Hope went to the pole and put one the handcuffs and the headband on the ground. She locked one ankle with one of the cuffs and the other ankle with another cuff. Then she kneeled on the ground and, with her legs apart one each side of the pole, she locked the cuffs together. “Perfect.” Lizzie said clapping. “Now your hands on the back just like your feet. The headband first.” Lizzie remembered. Hope did exactly that. She put the headband on the head tight enough that her head would move on the pole and then she put her arms back and locked the cuffs.

“You think he killed himself?” Josie asked finally voicing the absurdity of it.

“No, she thinks all of them killed themselves.” Hope said narrowing her eyes. “Right?”

“As insane as it looks like, yes, I do think.” Lizzie said. What made her think that was the fact that Jane’s husband had left her a note telling her to disappear just a few hours before he turn out dead.

“Why would they do that?” Josie asked. Lizzie thought about it watching Hope unlock herself from the pole.

“Someone was threatening them.” She said.

“Wait a second.” Josie said opening her cellphone and reading something. “All of the victims had lost some relative months or weeks before the death. The profilers said that the killer probably chose people in pain. They dig into the death of their relatives but they were accidents. A car crash, sickness, suicide.”

“But it wasn’t.” Hope said finally coming to them. “It was actually a warning. They kill one and say that if they don’t kill themselves, they’ll kill the rest of their family.”

“Yes. That’s why Allan told Jane to hide her pregnancy. They both don’t have any relatives or close friend so they couldn’t kill Jane to send a message because then they would lose their bargaining coin. If they knew about the baby, they could make her lose it.” Josie said completing Hope’s thought. Lizzie had already been through this line of thought and now she was stuck with why them.

“The other victims… Are they spies too?” Lizzie asked. Josie’s and Hope’s eye widened.

“Do you think it’s a clean-up?” Hope asked. “Jane and Allan’s mission years ago was to infiltrate in a USA embassy. The mission was part of a strategy to find dirt people with our agencies and government so they surely had spies elsewhere. Since Jane and Allan didn’t find any mole, they weren’t in danger and they were transferred to other agencies. If any spy found a mole, they would’ve been put in the spy alternative of witness protection.” Hope said.

“It means changing name, appearance and going to live in another city.” Josie completed.

“But their new identities are secret. Only someone really up there would have clearance to know.” Hope said and then Lizzie realized. She almost screamed at herself for taking so much to figure out.

“I know who. And why and how.” Lizzie said triumphant. “Let’s go.” Lizzie walked towards the door.

“And let Jane here alone?” Josie asked worried.

“Jane’s long gone, isn’t she?” Hope asked opening the containment cell’s door. Lizzie smiled at her.

“Yes.”

“How?” Josie asked entering it and looking around. “The monitor outside’s showing her laying on the bed and watching TV.”

“She did this for the first thirty minutes. The rest is a loop of it. Didn’t you find it weird that her movements were repetitive?” Lizzie frowned.

“No, Lizzie. Normal people don’t suspect that.” Josie said rolling her eyes. “How did she get out?”

“I can’t say. Not everything is disclosed in the FBI’s blueprints of this building. I can’t say because it’s classified.” Lizzie said serious and Hope started laughing.

“Your bad, Josie. She’s been waiting for years to say that.” Hope said. “Blame it on crime shows.”

“Let’s solve this so I can go back to Europe.” Josie huffed.

“Where are we going?” Hope asked when they were on the car.

“To the NSA’s director office.” Lizzie said and Hope, that had just started the car, hit the brakes.

“What?”

“Our killer’s there.” Lizzie said.

“Are you sure, Lizzie?” Hope asked grunting.

“99% sure.” Lie. Lizzie was only 50% sure it was her but she wouldn’t tell Hope that because Hope would give her a hard time. She was sure she could work things out till they get there. She started replaying things in her mind. The victims, the mission, the fires and Allan, the last victim. It was actually because of him that Lizzie found out. Lizzie hoped she was right, she thought as they parked in the NSA’s building.

“I’m trusting your _99% sureness_ right now.” Hope whispered air quoting the 99%. Lizzie smiled nervously. Hope knew her very well. When they talked to the director’s secretary, he frowned and told them that they didn’t have an appointment.

“Tell her it’s Lizzie.” Lizzie said and he widened his eyes.

“Of course, Dr Saltzman. I’ll tell her.” He said leaving quickly. Lizzie looked at everything in the waiting room. Lizzie sometimes hated how her mind worked. She hated that she could remember the entire layout, how many paintings on the wall, lamps, pens on the secretary’s desk and the number of files piled on his desk. That was actually how she had found out.

“Lizzie!” Kennedy Phillips, NSA’s director, exclaimed leaving her office and coming out to meet Lizzie. “It’s so nice to see you.” She led the back to her office.

“It’s nice to see you too. How’s Aimee?” Lizzie asked. When Hope frowned, Lizzie explained. “Aimee is Kennedy’s daughter.”

“Aimee’s doing great. She just heard the news that they chose her to be adjuvant on her school’s play. She’s in the clouds about it.” Kennedy said with motherly pride. Kennedy’s daughter, Aimee, had problem speaking and with her self-esteem. Lizzie had been seeing her weekly for the past three years and the improvements in the girl’s speech and confidence had been noticed by everyone.

“I’m so glad. I’ll call her tonight to congratulate her.” Lizzie said smiling. Lizzie noticed that both Hope and Josie were looking at her shocked. “Let me introduce you. This is Josie, my sister. She’s an arson specialist for the FBI and this is Hope.”

“Oh, It’s nice to finally meet you. Lizzie talks a lot about her twin sister and Hope’s probably my daughter’s hero from Lizzie’s stories.” Kennedy said and Lizzie blushed a little. Hope raised one eyebrow.

“Is that right?”

“She says she wants to be a _ninja_ just like you.” The director said laughing with fondness.

“I’m afraid I’m here to bring bad news.” Lizzie said. “Can you call your secretary here, please?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes, of course.” She said and a few seconds later he was there.

“Need something, director?” He asked.

“He’s the serial killer.” Lizzie said. Thinking backwards, she shouldn’t have said it like that. She should have explained her doubts and cautiously approached the subject after taking him into custody. You can’t keep you tongue inside your mouth, Hope used to say. But no, Lizzie just blurted out that and the man pulled out a gun and pointed it at the director. The next thing Lizzie saw was Hope’s foot hitting his face and the sound of a bone cracking. All that happened in a breath’s period of time. Lizzie didn’t even have time to move.

“Lizzie!” Hope hissed angry kicking the secretary’s gun from his hand. Lizzie poked him with her foot and noticed that he was unconscious. Those Hope kicks were really efficient.

“What just happened?” Kennedy asked.

“He was dirty.” Lizzie explained. Josie helped Hope to handcuff him.

“How did you know it was him?” Hope asked.

“ _Make sure to put the almonds in the box before they’re rotten_.” Josie said quoting Allan’s note. Then she left the office and came back a few seconds later with a little glass containing almonds. “It was a code.”

“Exactly. Every time I came here, he was eating almonds.” Lizzie said.

“I’ll have Maya going through his bank and cellphone records and to see if he was selling secrets and information of the NSA’s office.” Hope said calling Maya.

* * *

They found later everything. When Maya pulled the man’s records, she found unknown deposits from other countries. He was selling secrets. Allan found out about four months ago, around the time Jane said he started acting strange, and tried to gather information about him but he was careful to use fake names and identities when pursuing him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t clever enough and he used the fake names and identities that had been generated for his past mission. When the secretary crossed references with one of the identities, he learned that they were for a mission of uncovering moles. He didn’t know which one of the spies of those missions was after him so he decided to kill them all. He sent precise information about how they were supposed to kill themselves and he was nearby every fire to make sure that the victims were going to kill themselves. The only reason they found out about him was because Allan, before he died, swallowed a cyanide pill in hope that someone would think this wasn’t part of the serial killing that was happening and would investigate.

By the end of the day, Hope was getting congratulations from every single person in the bureau. She had uncovered a traitor, after all. She was the instant star. Josie too, if the million of calls she got ever since news from the case had started spreading was an indication. Hope’s captain was ecstatic and Josie’s boss was already on a plane to come here brag about Josie being her best agent. In the hurry of the rest of the day, Hope forgot about Jane. After finishing her report and getting another bunch of congrats, she went to Lizzie’s office. She and Jane were there drinking some juice.

“Hey.” Hope said.

“Hey, agent Mikaelson. Lizzie told me that you kicked the son of a bitch so hard that he’ll probably have headaches forever.” Jane said.

“I hope so.” Hope said smiling. “This was only possible because of your husband. He was the hero.” Hope said and Jane nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you.” She said standing up. “Thank you, Lizzie. For everything.” Jane said leaving the room.

“Tired of being congratulated the whole afternoon and night?” Lizzie asked when Jane was gone. Hope rolled her eyes. “We, mere doctors, don’t get the attention. Only agents like you and Josie.”

“As if you needed more attention than you already get naturally.” Hope said huffing and Lizzie laughed. “Where had Jane gone earlier?”

“I told my secretary to take her out of here through the escape door and protect her at all costs.” Lizzie said.

“Your secretary?”

“She’s actually a secretary-bodyguard. Her job is to keep me safe. She’s a ninja just like you. She’s actually going to take care of Jane till they put her in witness protection.” Lizzie said smiling. Hope sighed and looked away.

“One more bodyguard? I thought that having the psychologist from the office in front of yours watching you was enough.” Hope said ignoring Lizzie’s diversion about Jane and noticing, without even looking, that Lizzie was tracing her scar.

“Oh, so you also realized that he’s one of my guards.” Lizzie whispered tiredly. Hope stood up and took Lizzie’s hand away from her scar.

“Let’s go home, okay?” Hope said softly.

After picking up Josie and going to the car, Hope drove them home.

“I’ll have to leave tomorrow.” Josie said sad.

“So soon?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes. After the repercussion of this case, she wants me to go to the FBI’s academy and teach a course on Arson Inspection.”

“Wow, Jo. That’s great.” Lizzie said happy. “You’re a super star now.” Hope watched them with fondness all the way home. The twins were the closest friends Hope had ever had. Once Lizzie had been more but Hope loved Lizzie enough to accept what she could give. Once they arrived at Hope’s place, dinned together and went to sleep, Pedro asked, for the first time, a bedtime story. Hope’s heart almost exploded on the spot. When she sat on the bed next to the little boy and thought about a story to tell, Hope remembered the NSA’s director’s, Kennedy, words from earlier today. _Hope’s probably my daughter’s hero from Lizzie’s stories._ She remembered how excited Lizzie was few years ago before finally getting her badge as an agent to work with Hope how they had worked together before the FBI. Then she remembered how Lizzie’s dreams were teared to pieces; Hope’s too since her dream had been Lizzie at that time. She remembered how broken Lizzie had been, how angry Hope was; how she had almost killed herself trying to solve everything alone, how she couldn’t even look in Josie’s eyes because she was feeling guilty. But then she remembered how Lizzie got herself up from the ground and made herself new dreams. There was no one else Hope admired more. She knew exactly the story she would tell.

“Once upon a time, there was a superhero. She didn’t know how to fight and she didn’t have any superpowers-”

“That’s a lame superhero.” Pedro said yawning.

“Oh no, it isn’t. You see, this hero could solve any problem or riddle or mystery in the whole world just using only her brain. Everyone wondered how she could be so clever and…”

* * *

_NEXT CHAPTER_

_“I thought that everything was okay. Rachel had just told me that the adoption process was going nice and everything was fine. Pedro was being a sweetheart and Alyssa had even started smiling at me. Then, out of the freaking blue, Rachel tells me that I have to go to Adoption Course, Pedro starts having nightmares and waking me up in the middle of the night and Alyssa is angry at me and I don’t even know why. It’s been a week since I slept at least four uninterrupted hours.”_

_“Did Pedro tell you his nightmares?” Lizzie asked and Hope shook her head. “You have to make him tell you, Hope.”_

_“What is the problem with you two? You both are tied to a chair and you’ll probably going to die within the next couple of hours. Stop talking.” The man with the gun said angry. After screaming at them, he resumed his pacing. Lizzie looked at Hope pouting._

_“Can’t you just ninja us out of here already? This rope is hurting my wrists.” Lizzie asked Hope and Hope ignored her. “Come on, Hope, don’t be petty.”_

_“I’m not being petty, Lizzie. But it’s your fault that we’re trapped here so now we’ll stay here till the leader of the gang arrives so we can arrest them all.” Hope hissed at Lizzie. As soon as she said that, the noise of a car outside alerted them that the leader had finally arrived. “Luck you, Lizzie. Now tell me what you got.” Hope asked._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DID YOU LIKE IT? PLEASE LIKE IT AND COMMENT. I'm loving all of your comments.


	5. A Gang of... Actors?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope and Lizzie are called by someone of their past to investigate a case that is not what it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter. I hope you like it. It's so long and I'm sorry. I really tried to make it smaller. 
> 
> We have a little bit of their past in this one too. The pieces are coming together.
> 
> I REALLY REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE IT.
> 
> OH GOD! I really hope it's not super messy.

“Hope, when is Lizzie coming?” Pedro asked pouting, his eyes full of tears. Hope didn’t know what to say so she yawned tired. It had been a week since she had gotten a full night of sleep. She had thought that everything was fine. Since Pedro and Alyssa had come to live with her two months ago, Pedro had been the easier to take care of with his sweet, joyful and funny personality. But in the past few days, Pedro had been acting out; crying because of everything, throwing tantrums and even refusing to eat. Since Lizzie was out of town when the misbehavior started, Hope didn’t feel like disturbing her with problems till she got back. After all, the children were Hope’s and she couldn’t just turn to Lizzie every single time she had a problem. The worst part wasn’t Pedro’s behavior, though the screams in the middle of the night and the calls from the nanny in the middle of the day worried Hope. No, the worst part was Alyssa. Every single step forward that Hope and Alyssa had taken together were totally nullified by the long run backwards Alyssa had taken them. The girl was actually behaving worse than Hope had imagined possible. She would leave the bedroom a mess, scream at Hope when she asked her to clean it up, drive the nanny so crazy that Hope had to give her a 50% raise so she wouldn’t quit. One time Hope asked Alyssa to wash the cup that she had drank water from and the girl broke it on her hand not even flinching when the blood started dripping from it and puddling on the ground.

Hope thought about calling one of her aunts to talk about it but they wouldn’t know what to do. Freya and Keelin’s son, Nik, was already fourteen years old and he had always been the perfect little boy. Rebekah’s little girl was about Pedro’s age but Hope didn’t feel like bothering her aunt. After years of trying unsuccessfully, Rebekah finally had gotten pregnant and every single day had been devoted to her daughter since. Kol and Davina didn’t have kids, opting for a life of traveling around the world and Hope didn’t even know where they were right now. Iceland, probably. Anyway, the only person Hope wanted to talk about the kids was Lizzie and she would do this tomorrow as soon as she arrived from her Psychology Conference. Hope had tried to relieve the tension by bringing the kids to the park on her day off. She even had bought bread to feed the ducks. It spoke to Pedro’s mood that he had thrown the breadcrumbs so hard at the ducks that if the bread were just a little harder, it would cause them a concussion.

“Pedro, I already told you that Lizzie’s traveling and she’ll come b-” Hope’s phone interrupted her and she frowned at the _confidential number_ on the screen. “Hello?”

“Hello, Mikaelson. It’s been a long time.” The man said from the other side of the line. Hope immediately felt the anger taking over.

“What do you want?” Hope hissed.

“A favor.” He said.

“Why would I do you a favor?” Hope laughed scornfully.

“Oh no, I meant that I’m doing you a favor. You see, dearest Lizzie will be here in about three hours to do a job for me. I thought that you would like to know since you like to keep her in a short leash.” He said in that mocking and odious way that made Hope want to break his bones. “If you would like to, I can send a plane to pick you up so you can mother her while she’s with me. I know how much you despise me.” He didn’t know how much Hope despised him. His mind couldn’t even grasp the idea of hate Hope felt for the repulsive man. Hope also hated to submit to his requests but he was right in one thing: Hope hated him enough and would do anything to make sure Lizzie wouldn’t be hurt even if that meant accepting the invitation. 

“I’ll be ready in an hour.” Hope said.

“Make it 45.” He said hanging up and leaving Hope with a bitter taste in her mouth.

When Hope arrived home, she tried to call the nanny but the woman was traveling. Since today was Hope’s day off, tomorrow Lizzie would be back early from her trip to pick up the kids for a day in the museum and the day after would be weekend and, unless an urgent crime popped up, Hope would be home, the nanny would only be back on Monday. Hope didn’t know how much time she would take with Lizzie and knowing the devil-send that Hope had just talked to, the plane could take her to the moon. After a call to Rachel, Pedro and Alyssa’s caseworker, Hope got the permission to take the kids with her but not before Rachel delivering the news that she had enrolled Hope in an Adoption Class starting next week. Hope didn’t have the time to complain right now so she thanked her and hung up. Hope thanked whoever deity had made her get passports for the kids last month or else she wouldn’t be able to travel with them without knowing where they would be going. Lizzie would call her hasty, passional or stupid for dropping everything and hopping into a plane to god-knows-where just to take care of her. Hope would ignore her.

When she asked Alyssa to pack a few clothes for her while Hope packed Pedro’s, the boy started screaming and Alyssa looked at her with so much hate that Hope thought about maybe sending her to some anger management therapy.

“Hey, Pedro. Why are you crying now?” Hope tried calmly, her mind reminding her that she had 25 minutes to get to the private airport where they would board the plane.

“I don’t wanna go back.” Pedro sobbed and Hope frowned not knowing what he meant until it hit her that asking Alyssa to pack her clothes and start to pack Pedro’s wasn’t a good way to prepare a foster kid for traveling. The boy thought that he would be sent back to foster care. “I’ll be a good boy. I promise.” Pedro cried hugging Hope. Hope cursed herself for making the boy feel insecure.

“Hey, sweetie, you’re already a good boy. I’m not going to send you anywhere. I’m just packing some clothes because we’re going to travel to meet Lizzie. Didn’t you want to see her?” Hope asked and he nodded. “But now we have to go fast or else we’ll lose the plane, okay?” He nodded again and the sobs subsided. After packing their things and picking up her emergency luggage that she had for situations such as this one, she went to that taxi already waiting outside. Hope may have showed her badge to him and told him that she was in official business and needed him to make the 20 minute trip to the airport in 15.

After getting there and finally boarding the plane, Hope got to breathe. She ignored Alyssa’s angry stare all the way from home and she would continue to ignore it a little bit more if possible. Hope asked the pilot where they were going and she said her instructions were not to say anything. Hope bit her lip and avoided punching the woman, after all she was only following instructions from the son of a bitch in charge. Hope would’ve been drinking by now were she alone, but Pedro’s excited screeches reminded her that she wasn’t. After putting seatbelts in both the kids and herself, Pedro asked her to put a seatbelt on his dinosaur too so Hope put the dinosaur in the seat next to Pedro and put a seatbelt on it. Then she sat in front of him and beside Alyssa and tried to talk to her.

“I don’t want you to feel like I was going to give you up. I should’ve said that we were going to travel.” She said but the girl only nodded. If Hope were a little more like Lizzie, she would’ve realized that the reason Alyssa didn’t say some harsh remark was because she was to occupied clutching to the seat’s arms as the plane started to move but Hope wasn’t so what made her notice the girl’s fright was her little gasp when the plane gained velocity before flying. Now see, Hope had been overthinking since day one about how she would know the moment to hug the kids for the first time. Lizzie had laughed at her face and told her that she would know. Such a vague answer for a woman so logical like Lizzie to give, Hope had said back. _Some things don’t need logic, Hope_ was Lizzie’s reply. But Hope haven’t stop thinking about it. With Pedro had been easy. He was the one to hug her still in the first week because she had cooked his favorite meal. Just like that she earned a hug. Since then, the boy had hugged Hope more than some of the members of her family. Alyssa, though, always left Hope anxious. Hope was certain that when she tried to hug her for the first time, the girl would recoil so hard that she would implode. But seeing the girl so afraid and vulnerable snapped something inside of her and she _just knew_. She put her arm around the girl’s trembling shoulders and pulled her a little. Hope would never forget how Alyssa’s muscles seemed to relax as soon as Hope touched her; how her little body responded to Hope’s comfort so eagerly. Hope knew she loved the little girl at that moment when she felt, for the first time, the whole weight of being a mother and she _just knew_ that even terrified of it, she wouldn’t wish anything differently. Alyssa didn’t look at her but she did snuggle closer and Hope did not let go.

The airplane, too big for only three passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants seemed almost ghostly in the gray sky and after they had brought them lunch and Pedro and Alyssa had watched a movie on the huge television of the plane, they slept. Hope realized, too late, that she should’ve warned her captain that she wouldn’t go to work tomorrow. She opened her phone and typed a quick message saying that she wouldn’t be able to go to work tomorrow for personal reasons. Hope laughed when she pressed send imagining his face if he found out that personal reasons meant flying blindly to follow Lizzie. After a few minutes Hope, tired from waking up in the middle of the night by Pedro’s nightmares, fell asleep.

When she woke up, the plane was about to land. She woke the kids up and once again held Alyssa close as the plane descended and finally landed. When they left the airplane, the first thing she noticed was the striking cold and the huge lighted sign that read:

**WELCOME TO ANCHORAGE**

“Alaska?” Hope grunted.

* * *

Hope wouldn’t like her decision to help in this investigation was the first thing Lizzie thought when she got the call. It was also the main thought in Lizzie’s mind during the flight to Alaska and later during the car ride to the hotel. Since Lizzie had spent the last week giving and watching courses in the Psychology Conference and she had arrived in Anchorage late, she would head straight to the hotel and start working in the investigation tomorrow. When she finally settled in the hotel, she tried calling Hope but it went to voicemail. She found it weird but she decided to call her later to let her know that she wouldn’t be able to take the kids tomorrow. When she finished her hot shower, ate a delicious soup delivered from the hotel’s restaurant and laid on her bed watching television, though, she slept easily.

Lizzie woke up with someone banging on the door. She jumped out of bed and approached it slowly, her heart hammering in her chest. When she opened the door, she was shocked to find Hope and the kids.

“Lizzie!” Pedro screamed hugging her excited.

“Hey, Pedro.” She said hugging him back and then turning to Alyssa. “Hey, Alyssa.”

“Hey, Lizzie.” The girl said entering the room. When Lizzie looked at Hope, the other woman’s face seemed angry.

“What are you doing here, Hope?” Lizzie asked frowning and Hope fumed.

“What am I doing here? Is that serious?” Hope asked infuriated. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to help _him_ in an investigation?” Hope asked letting all her hatred for the man slip through with the word _him_.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” Lizzie’s frown deepened.

“And how did that work?” Hope asked.

“Pretty well until you show up here with the kids in tow.” Lizzie said finding it lovely how Hope’s eyes narrowed at her before she shook her head sighing and murmuring something about god forbidding stupid people. “How did you know I was here?”

“He called me too to scorn.” Hope said snorting.

“Oh.” Lizzie should’ve imagined, really. “Where’s your room?” Lizzie asked and Hope lifted her keycard with the same number of Lizzie’s. “Here?”

“Of course it’s here. That man is that loathsome. I would’ve opened the door with my key instead of letting Pedro bang it but I really didn’t feel like being nice to you.” Hope said finally entering the room.

“So that’s why this is a family room with two bedrooms. I wondered why put me in a room so big if I was going to stay here alone.” Lizzie said taking Hope to the bedroom with two bed that she hadn’t used. Pedro and Alyssa followed them and were soon on the bed and turning on the TV.

“I’m going to ask you a question already knowing the answer.” Hope warned. “Why didn’t Maya warn me that you left town. I mean, what’s the point of tracking you if it doesn’t matter?”

“I called her before coming and asked her not to tell you because I wanted to tell you myself.” Lizzie said feeling a little guilty for worrying Hope. She just hated the constant hovering from them all. Lizzie shouldn’t complain about Hope, though. Hope had never pressed her about anything and never really asked Lizzie for more than she could give. Of course Hope had gotten more fretted after what happened to Lizzie but it wasn’t something she wouldn’t do _before_. If Lizzie had traveled to the snake nest alone _before_ , Hope would’ve also hopped on the first plane to come and help her fight the snakes. Hope nodded.

“I need to get some sleep. Can you help me out with the kids?” Hope asked and Lizzie saw how tired she was.

“I was sleeping so I’m not so tired.” Lizzie lied. “Go ahead and sleep. I’ll shower the kids and order something for them to eat.” Lizzie suggested and Hope must’ve been really tired because she nodded again, murmured a _thank you_ and went to the bed. Lizzie called the kids and after closing the door to Hope’s bedroom she turned to them. “Pedro, Alyssa. It’s already three in the morning and we need to sleep. I’ll order us some hamburgers while you two go shower so we can try to sleep as soon as possible. You know how cranky I am when I don’t sleep.” Lizzie said making a cranky face that made Pedro laugh. Alyssa picked her pajamas and went to the bathroom and while Lizzie called the restaurant, Pedro picked his. After taking him to the other bathroom, helping him to clean up and dressing him in his pajamas, she went to the common room to wait for the hamburgers. She noticed that while Pedro was as active as always, he was also a little jittery. Alyssa too was too quiet. After the food arrived and they ate, it didn’t take long for Pedro to sleep. Instead of taking him to Hope’s bedroom, she put him in the extra bed in her bedroom.

“What happened, Alyssa?” Lizzie tried and the girl only laid on the bed next to her brother and sighted. When Lizzie thought she wouldn’t say anything else, she heard her small voice.

“Goodnight, Lizzie.” And that was it. In the morning Lizzie would find out what happened with them.

When she woke up, the kids weren’t in the room and for a moment she was overwhelmed by blinding fear. Then she closed her eyes and focused on the sounds of their voices from the common room. When she joined them, Hope had already ordered breakfast. Lizzie couldn’t help noticing that Hope’s behavior were a little strained and that Alyssa was ignoring her. After they finished breakfast and showered, they finally left the room. “Is today take your kids to work day?” Lizzie joked while they waited for the car and Hope gave her a glare.

“Their nanny is travelling, my family lives in other state, Josie is out of town and Maya is working this weekend so I had to bring them.” Hope said.

“That’s okay. If we need to do some work outside, we can leave the kids in the office.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded. Lizzie didn’t fool herself thinking that he had called her here because he needed only her. He knew that Hope would come running as soon as he told her Lizzie was coming so he didn’t have to actually ask her; she had already taken the job when Lizzie accepted to come. When they arrived in the small building that looked as innocent as a coffee shop and entered the elevator, Lizzie looked at Hope.

“Let’s be civil.” She said and Hope huffed like an angry bull. Lizzie would find it adorable if it weren’t for the fact that Hope punched the man they were going to see last time they met. Not that Lizzie cared; he could blow up for all she cared, but she cared about Hope and she didn’t want to see her doing desk work for months just because she punched the CIA’s director right hand. Alyssa was looking at Hope curious. The girl had never seen Hope this distressed before and it sure was a sight. Lizzie remembered two months ago when they went to talk to Mrs. Clarke, Alyssa’s other social worker that had made the girl’s life a hell, and Hope handcuffed her so hard that she broke her wrist. When the elevator’s door opened, every single pair of eyes snapped to them and then the whispers started. She hated whispers. She wasn’t one to whisper, she never was, preferring to say whatever it was to anyone’s face. People didn’t usually like her because of it. She just stared at them with ice in her eyes. When he left his office and came to meet them, Lizzie could practically feel Hope’s hatred physically as if it were an energy field.

“My two favorite agents.” He said with that disgustingly wide grin. Then he hit his temple with his finger as if he had just remembered something. “Oh, I forgot that Lizzie is not an agent.” And that stung. As much as Lizzie tried to ignore it and she didn’t let anything show on her face, inside she felt anguish and outside she felt every scar on her body tingling with the reminder.

“Fuck off, Sebastian.” Hope shouted. Pedro’s eyes widened and Hope winced when she realized it.

“And Hope Mikaelson, always so fervent. I missed you. Let’s get in.” He indicated for them to get in. When they entered his office, he finally acknowledged the children. “And those must be Pedro and Alyssa, the stray orphans you took in.” He said looking at Pedro as if he were an insignificant ant. And then Alyssa joined Hope on the se _eing red_ train. Lizzie also saw red, but unlike Hope and Alyssa, she had learned to scold her reactions very well.

“The way I see, you’re in a fucking thin line if you had to call us and sent two planes to pick us up and bring here. Don’t forget that you’re only in this position because I didn’t bother myself to bring you down.” Lizzie said coldly and she relished on that flash of fear that crossed his eyes. Then sat on the chair and smiled.

“We found another one.” He said after some time. Lizzie’s eyes widened and she stood up.

“You know I don’t work with those kids.” Lizzie hissed. “That’s why you said you couldn’t tell me over the phone. You knew that I wouldn’t come if you told me.”

“You’re the only one that managed to get some information from the last one.” Sebastian said.

“The boy d-” Lizzie started but then remembered that Alyssa and Pedro were listening. “You know how it went.”

“But you did get the information anyway.” Sebastian said. “And solving this case will work wonders on my career. I’ll let Mikaelson here talk you into it while I go to upstairs to get some torture done.” He said winking at Alyssa and Lizzie almost took him down on the spot. She could not know how to fight like Hope and her shooting skills had only 14% precision but she was the better at making people scream for help without even touching them. She did enjoy breaking some bones, though.

“Is he a villain?” Pedro asked with his innocent voice and Lizzie watched Hope flinching and regretting bringing the kids. It was Lizzie’s fault for accepting to come here.

“He’s an asshole, Pedro.” Alyssa said angry at Hope. Yeah, things were already messy and Lizzie had just worsened.

“He is. That’s why Hope punched his annoying face last time she saw him.” Lizzie said to light up the mood. Hope glared at her. Then Lizzie sighted and looked at Hope.

“I won’t talk you into it.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded. It didn’t matter, though, because Lizzie would help anyway. It was funny how things worked. Lizzie used to be angry at Hope when she popped in her office with some traumatized kid but in the end, she always helped Hope and talked to the kid. Hope knew why Lizzie avoided those kind of children and that was the only limit she had ever crossed. Even though Lizzie had begged her not to bring kids, Hope kept bringing them because she knew Lizzie needed it. After all, before everything; before even starting to work for the CIA and meeting Hope, Lizzie thought she would be a simple child psychiatrist. When she was 22 and had started her first year of residency, she was recruited to work with the CIA. They told her she would complete her residency with them. Lizzie found it weird back then that they would want her since child psychiatry was way out of CIA’s field. She always knew she was clever, though, so she thought it was because of it. Being homeschooled by their mom since they were 12 and had been expelled from three schools for misbehavior, she and Josie had finished high school at 16 and while Josie had entered the firefighting department leaving everyone open-mouthed with her skills to identify types of fires, accelerants and origin points; most of her knowledge coming from her testing her fire skills a lot; Lizzie had entered pre med and become the best of her class. She had graduated med school at 22 and was so damned innocent. She though that the CIA wanted her because of her observation skills but she learned soon that everything psychiatry or psychology related meant torture to the CIA. She was partnered with Hope two months later and sent across the Atlantic to ‘ _gather information’_.

“Did you hear me, Lizzie?” Hope said when she noticed that Lizzie had spaced out. “You don’t need to do it.”

“I’ll do it.” Lizzie said and her heart jumped when she saw pride in Hope’s eyes. She nodded. “Now, Pedro and Alyssa, I have a friend here and he loves kids. Let me introduce you to him?” She said leaving the office and looking around for the surveillance room. When she spotted a room that looked like it, she entered and found whom she was looking for. She rolled her eyes at the dumb face Landon was displaying.

“Lizzie! Hope!” Landon exclaimed standing up from his desk so fast that he hit his knee on it. Lizzie heard Hope grunting behind her. Despite the fact that they were inside the snake’s nest and Lizzie was just asked to work again on a case that had almost broken her a few years ago, Lizzie felt the urge to laugh at Hope’s face. Even though they were surrounded by snakes, Landon was a bunny. It surprised Lizzie that they hadn’t eaten him yet.

“Hey, Landon.” Hope said hugging him.

“Can you show Alyssa and Pedro here how nice your work is while Hope and I go solve something?” Lizzie asked going direct to the point. Landon noticed the kids just then and his eyes widened.

“I didn’t know you two had kids.” Landon exclaimed in that dorky way that made him look like a child himself. Lizzie felt herself blushing.

“Can you watch them or not?” Lizzie asked brushing away the awkwardness with matter-of-factness.

“Sure.” He said. Lizzie heard Hope talking to the kids that she would have to go protect Lizzie from the very bad villain and they would have to stay here with Landon. Hope gave them money to get candy from the machine. After leaving them, Lizzie and Hope went back to Sebastian’s office. He was already there waiting for them.

“Let me show you the girl.” He said taking them upstairs to an interrogation room. Lizzie looked to the girl through the glass. She was sitting on the chair hugging her knees. She couldn’t be more than thirteen. She _looked_ terrified.

“How long is she in there?” Lizzie asked angry.

“26 hours and counting. I’ll leave you to work.” He said and left them there.

“It’s going to be okay.” Hope said. “You’re at your element when you’re working with kids.”

“No, I’m at my element when I’m…” Lizzie started but then something caught her attention. “Huh.” She looked closer at the girl. Her hair, her nails, her pants.

“What is it?” Hope asked looking at the girl and trying to see what Lizzie was seeing.

“That girl is lying.”

“She didn’t even say anything.” Hope frowned. 26 hours with her and none of their profilers figure it out? Lizzie rolled her eyes and went to the room the girl was in. When she entered the room, she took the spare chair and placed it next to the girl and sat on it.

“I know you’re lying.” Lizzie said softly. “Where are you hurting yourself? Is it on the legs?” And this time the girl stilled. “Are you also pulling your hair?” Lizzie asked. The girl looked at her, tears on her eyes. “You see, I know you’re lying, girl. The tears won’t change my point of view.” Lizzie whispered, her heart heavy. The tears were breaking her but Lizzie had to gain this girl and sweet talk wouldn’t do the trick with this one. “You’re a diversion girl. I’ve met a diversion child before, you know. And it didn’t end well for him. He also thought that he would finally be free after that last job but he was shot in the head.” Lizzie said trying not to flinch. Her mind replayed the scene with more details than she noticed when it was actually happening. “They already told you that, right? Before they brought me here. I bet they showed you pictures too. I won’t do this. And I know you also don’t believe in me. Why would you? But I’ll show you something that will probably show you that I get it.” Lizzie said and then proceeded to take off her jacket. When the girl looked at Lizzie's arms she gasped. “You see, I know how it is to hurt myself.” Lizzie lied. Or maybe she didn’t. In truth, she believed it was a lie as much as she hoped it was. Lizzie didn’t think she was one to self-harm. Yes, sometimes she would bite her mouth till it bled when a particularly nasty flashback assaulted her and yes, sometimes she would clasp her hands so tight that her nails would cut through skin. But cutting her wrists meant something; something so dark and scary and Lizzie didn’t think she would do that. But there were the scars and the doubt of how they got there. When the girl looked Lizzie in the eyes again with tears forming, Lizzie knew these ones were real.

“I don’t want to hurt myself.” She said.

“I know.” Lizzie said softly taking out a hand sanitizer and some tissues from her jacket pocket. Then she proceeded to clean the girl’s nail that were slightly dirtied with blood. “It’s a tactical move, right? Someone taught you that hurting yourself makes the feelings you’re faking seem more real. Because if you’re really hurting, then you can make people believe that this pain is emotional or even fear, like you were trying to do.” Lizzie said and the girl nodded.

“How do you know that?”

“I’m just super observant. Now will you tell me whatever you know so I can try to help you?” Lizzie asked.

“Why would I believe that you can help me if the other one died?” The girl asked in return. Lizzie shrugged. “My name is Carly.”

“I’m Lizzie.”

“They took me when I was five. I don’t remember much from before but I used to live on the streets. They took me in, cleaned me and told me I could have food, toys, TV and even a room just to myself if I did what I was told. I agreed, of course.” Carly said with detached voice.

“What did they ask you to do?” Carly shrugged.

“In the beginning? Pay attention to my classes, respect curfew, take care of the younger ones.”

“What classes they taught?” Lizzie asked afraid of the girl’s answer. When Lizzie talked to the boy so many years ago, he only had time to tell her where the next crime would happen and because of him they were able to prevent it.

“In the beginning I didn’t think there was something wrong about it, but as I grew up, I started to notice that normal children probably didn’t have poisoning, theft or killing classes. I was lucky that I got into acting. The girl next to my bedroom went to killing. I still remember her crying after the first time.”

“Stop!” Lizzie said sighing. “Let’s try again. Try telling the truth this time. You’re quite good. The best way to lie is to mix up a little bit of truth. I guess that you’re the one that got into killing.” Lizzie deduced and watched as _the tapping of the girl’s finger_ faltered for less than one second. It was enough for Lizzie to know that she had guessed right. “What takes me to the big question: why use a killer as diversion?” Lizzie tilted her head. “Before you do something stupid and try, I don’t know, breaking my neck, remember that if you try to do anything with me my partner will burst thought that door and she won’t care that you’re a child. It doesn’t matter how good you are because she’s better.” Lizzie said.

“Screw you.” Carly said.

“I’ll let you think and I’ll be back in a few.” Lizzie said standing up and going to the room Hope was.

“I really thought the girl was going to tell you something.” Hope said frowning.

“Let’s go outside and take some air.” Lizzie said and Hope followed her. When they were outside, a frowning Hope staring at her, she finally told her.

“Yes, she told me something.”

* * *

“What?” Hope asked stunned. There was no way that Carly had told Lizzie something. Hope was watching the whole interrogation and the girl was lying through her teeth as Lizzie had pointed out.

“Morse code.” Lizzie exclaimed smugly.

“Oh, come on. That’s not true.” Hope grunted loudly.

“Didn’t you notice that she was tapping her fingers?” Lizzie asked frowning as if it was normal for regular people to notice someone tapping and recognize it as Morse code.

“No, Lizzie, I did not.” Hope said rolling her eyes. “What did she tell you anyway?”

“An address.”

“It could be a trap.”

“It could.” Lizzie said smirking. That damned smirk always meant trouble.

“So we’ll walk right into it.” Hope stated and Lizzie nodded. Hope picked her phone and sent a message to Landon asking him to look after the kids while she and Lizzie would follow a lead. When they were on the car, Hope finally asked Lizzie what was bothering her. “Why Morse code?” Hope asked.

“Huh?” Lizzie mumbled.

“Why don’t just tell you? What a code?”

“Oh, because I was doing Morse code to her while we were talking. I was the one to start it.” Lizzie said smiling. Of course it was her, Hope thought rolling her eyes hard. Hope glanced at Lizzie’s arms, her stomach twisting at the sight of it. It always pained Hope to look at it. It pained even more that Lizzie just walked around, arms bared and scars for everyone to see. Not that Hope wanted Lizzie to be ashamed; Hope wouldn’t know what to do or how to live if Lizzie were ashamed. The thing was that Hope hated the looks people gave Lizzie, particularly the judging ones; the ones from people that only saw Lizzie’s cold and sometimes arrogant exterior and thought that they knew her.

“Stop thinking about it, Hope. Will you feel better if I wear my jacket?” Lizzie asked simply. No shame nor judgment in her question. Only Lizzie worried that Hope wouldn’t feel comfortable. Hope didn’t but instead of telling Lizzie that, she only shook her head. When they arrived at the address Lizzie had told her, they left the car.

“What are the odds that we’re walking into a trap?” Hope asked.

“Scientifically or what I think?” Lizzie asked.

“What you think.” Hope answered knowing that it was probably more correct than the scientific odds.

“About 80%. Give or take ten.” Lizzie said and Hope glared at her. That was a fricking high odd. It wasn’t a surprise when something hit Hope’s head and when she woke up she was tied to a chair.

“It was a trap.” Lizzie said when she noticed that Hope had woken up. Hope glared at her.

“Don’t you say.”

“To be fair, I did tell you that it would probably be.” Lizzie said calm.

“You were awake. Did you see or hear something?” Hope asked.

“They’re waiting for the boss to come and kill us. They were told not to hurt us yet.” Lizzie told her as if they were talking about which tree they would pick on Christmas. “I was meaning to ask you but I didn’t have the time and since now we have… I was wondering what’s wrong. Alyssa was really upset, Pedro was way less talkative than he usually is and you seem like you were hit by a truck five times and then one more.” Lizzie asked frowning.

“Wow, thank you.” Hope said sarcastically.

“For noticing? Sure.” Lizzie smirked and Hope sighed.

“I have no idea. I thought that everything was okay. Rachel had just told me that the adoption process was going nice and everything was fine. Pedro was being a sweetheart and Alyssa had even started smiling at me. Then, out of the freaking blue, Rachel tells me that I have to go to Adoption Course, Pedro starts having nightmares and waking me up in the middle of the night and Alyssa is angry at me and I don’t even know why. It’s been a week since I slept at least four uninterrupted hours.”

“Did Pedro tell you his nightmares?” Lizzie asked and Hope shook her head. “You have to make him tell you, Hope.”

“What is the problem with you two? You both are tied to a chair and you’ll probably going to die within the next couple of hours. Stop talking.” The man with the gun said angry. After screaming at them, he resumed his pacing. Lizzie looked at Hope pouting.

“Can’t you just _ninja_ us out of here already? This rope is hurting my wrists.” Lizzie asked Hope and Hope ignored her. “Come on, Hope, don’t be petty.”

“I’m not being petty, Lizzie. But it’s your fault that we’re trapped here so now we’ll stay here till the leader of the gang arrives so we can arrest them all.” Hope hissed at Lizzie. As soon as she said that, the noise of a car outside alerted them that the leader had finally arrived. “Luck you, Lizzie. Now tell me what you got.” Hope asked.

“The one in green is lefthanded, the blonde with the scar has two more guns hidden, one in her boot and the other inside her jacket. The man with the bear tattoo doesn’t know how to use his gun and the one with the dragon tattoo has asthma.” Lizzie said watching the crew of criminals packing the drugs at the other end of the warehouse.

“Only that? You used to be better.” Hope said feigning disappointment.

“The wonder twins over there are definitely screwing each other in a very incestuous way, our nervous pacing man right here is dying of a tumor, the redheaded woman has diabetes, the guy watching the door has a bee allergy and the one watching the door behind us is trying to quit smoking.” Lizzie whispered just to annoy Hope. She rolled her eyes.

“Show-off.” Hope said, then “Two minutes.”

“No way.” Lizzie said laughing. “No way you can beat them all in two minutes.”

“I have to. The boss is on his or her way in. Now do me a favor.” Hope asked. “Beat my face with your head.” And as soon as the words left her lips, Lizzie used her forehead to beat Hope’s mouth. “Aw!” Hope shouted.

“You asked me.” Lizzie said.

“You didn’t even hesitate.” Hope said. When the man watching them saw all the blood, he cursed.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” He shouted walking towards Hope. That proved to be the wrong move because as soon as he was close enough, Hope jumped.

* * *

Lizzie would never get tired of seeing Hope kicking people’s ass. As soon as the man was close enough, Hope jumped in a back flip that made the leg of the chair hit the man’s face and then break when it hit the ground. In five seconds Hope was free. She, then kicked the woman that was watching the door behind them and she fell to the ground unconscious. Lizzie frowned. Something was wrong. That Hope was _that good,_ Lizzie didn’t have a doubt but these criminals seemed too bad. The ones that were packing the drugs on the other end of the warehouse didn’t even move and they were staring at Hope running towards them like a revenge spirit as if they never had been in a fight before.

“Hope, stop.” Lizzie said freeing herself from the ropes and running to Hope that was punching a wide-eyed man. Hope looked at her.

“What?”

“I don’t think they’re criminals.” Lizzie said pointing at the rest of the gang. They were hiding behind boxes or running to the exit of the warehouse. Hope frowned. “I think this was staged. I think this is a gang of…” she looked around baffled. “A gang of actors.”

“Oh hell no! What about the lefthanded and the one with two hidden guns? What about the asthma and the freaking bee allergy?”

“I think that was staged too.” Lizzie frowned and then looked at the man Hope had just punched. He was trying hard not to cry. “What is happening here?” Lizzie asked.

“It’s a job. They told us that we were going to act for a scene. They gave us our scripts and payed us in advance. They told us it was for a group of young people that liked to play detectives.” He said and Lizzie shook her head. Then she walked to the drugs they were packing and opened one of the bags. When she tasted, the sweet taste told her exactly what it was.

“It’s sugar.” She said showing it to Hope. “They knew we were coming. Not the CIA or just some agents. They knew that you and I were coming.”

“How is that possible? What does that mean?” Hope asked.

“This was the diversion. Not Carly.” Lizzie wondered out loud.

“What does that mean?”

“Whatever’s supposed to happen is happening there.”

“So it’s happening where?” Hope asked but Lizzie knew that she already knew the answer.

“We have to go back.” Lizzie said running back to the car. They drove like crazy. The only thing Lizzie could think about was Alyssa and Pedro inside a building with a trained killer. That couldn’t be happening. She looked at Hope. “I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault, Lizzie.” Hope said barely audible.

“It was. If I hadn’t just-”

“It’s okay!” Hope shouted and Lizzie looked away. “It’s just that for someone so clever and rational like you, sometimes you just do some pretty dumb things. Coming here without telling me, knowing the son of a bitch that Sebastian is, taking a child’s word to heart and going to the warehouse.” Hope said not looking at Lizzie. Lizzie noticed that she left out _going after a serial killer on your own_. That always hang between them as an invisible rope just waiting for the next one to suffocate. “I understand, though.” Hope said, one hand reaching for Lizzie’s. When they arrived at the temporary CIA building and went up, it was empty. Lizzie and Hope went to the surveillance room where Landon and the kids should be but it was also empty. Hope looked at her. “Think, Lizzie. What would they want with the CIA? Their targets are usually worldwide corporations.”

“A few years ago when we worked on this case, we got involved because of a boy. His name was Chris. He went to the police and told them about this huge job. The police didn’t believe him, after all he was a 14 years old child. One of the cops, though, filled a report and put it in the system. The report got attention by the CIA that was keeping an eye to a group of secret thieves that were operation all over the world.” Lizzie said.

“Yes. The CIA suspected that they trained people to infiltrate in banks and social media companies to steal private information. We were some of the lot of officers working on this case. The boss wanted to close this case as soon as possible and for the first time in years, they had a lead.” Hope continued at the same time as she inspected every single corners of the floor to look for someone.

“The boy that went to the cops was brought to the CIA office to questioning. I was one of the people that talked to him.” Lizzie said remembering how innocent and scared the boy looked.”

“What happened after that?” Hope asked stopping. “For some reason, I just remember the boy getting shot, solving the case but the lead on the organization that coordinated the crimes going cold and Sebastian getting promoted.” Hope frowned.

“No one got all the details. You know how CIA works with compartmentalized information. But long story short, the boy told us that he used to play with radio stations and this one time, he tuned in a radiofrequency that he had never seen before and listened to people talking about a crime. He told us where it would happen and how. We were able to stop it but when we released the boy, he was shot in the head by someone in the organization that got angry at the boy for frustrating their plans. After he was dead, though, we searched family and friends and anything really about the life of this boy, but he had disappeared from database as soon as he was killed. We got to the conclusion that he was actually part of the organization and when he decided to rebel they killed him.”

“There’s clearly more to it, right?” Hope said after finishing looking everywhere with Lizzie’s help.

“No. That was everything we knew until this girl was brought into custody and she told me that they teach kids how to be criminals.”

“Do you believe her after she had sent us to a prank?” Hope asked finally stopping.

“That part was true.” Lizzie said looking around. That wasn’t right. They had spent just an hour away. How could everyone just disappear?

“Wait.” Hope said frowning. “This is CIA. They would have a secret room or something.”

“You’re right.” Lizzie said looking around at the layout of the place. Something was wrong but she couldn’t quite place what.

“There were 13 people here and now they’re not. Where would they go in case of an attack?” Hope asked. Lizzie though about it. If this were one of the regular CIA offices, it would surely have secret rooms and passageways. But this was a temporary office; one they settle just till they solve a case and move on to another place. But they never chose the places casually, no, they always chose places with spaces that weren’t on the original blueprints so is someone tried to break in, they wouldn’t know the layout of the place. Lizzie always thought that it was kind of stupid because if the hidden spaces weren’t on the blueprints that meant that the CIA could be fooled and settle in a place with more hidden spaces that they were aware of. She had even tried to alert them of it but they ignored her saying that it had worked for more years than she was alive so why should they improve just because a 23 years old junior officer thought it was bad? Lizzie looked around again and tried to see what was wrong.

“One door is missing.” Lizzie said finally realizing what was wrong. Hope looked around.

“Which one?” Hope asked.

“There were a door here.” Lizzie said running to the place where it should be. She watched Hope touching the wall as if it would disappear in front of her.

“Well, there’s a wall.” Hope said frowning. Then “It’s just like the containment room of your office. Anyone looking at it would say that it was just a room but you know that there’s a hidden door from where your secretary took Jane out. It’s the same here. How do you open the door in your office.” Hope asked. Lizzie went to the wall then and started to trace it until she found a hole the size of a needle head. She then took her earing and stick it in the hole. She knew it had worked when she heard a clicking sound and then wall moved to the side. And there was the door. They looked at each other before Hope taking her gun and entering the door. It led them to a staircase. When they got downstairs in a space that looked like a basement, they started to hear voices.

“Tell me who killed him.” Carly screamed at someone.

“It was someone in your organization. We don’t know who.” Sebastian answered.

“Lies. Lies. Lies.” Carly said. “Do you want me to start killing your people?” She asked and Hope looked at Lizzie terrified that Alyssa and Pedro were listening to this. The got closer. When they finally were close enough to see what was happening, the first thing Lizzie noticed was that Alyssa and Pedro weren’t there. The second was Hope running so fast that Lizzie almost couldn’t see her. The next thing she saw was Carly unconscious on the floor. Hope had hit her with the gun.

“Where are my kids?” Hope asked when she spotted Landon on the ground with a bleeding head.

“I hid them.” Landon said getting up with Lizzie’s and Hope’s help.

“Where?” Hope asked a little relieved. After Sebastian and two more agents took Carly upstairs to one of the cells, Landon took them back to the surveillance room. Then he went to the corner of the room where the computers were and kneeled to the ground.

“It’s a hidden compartment of guns and files. Fortunately, it was bog enough for two children.” He said opening one of the machine’s fake screen and revealing Alyssa and Pedro hidden there and eating candies. “I put them here _when I listened to the other people playing hide and seek_.” Landon said nodding to Hope for her to understand that the kids didn’t know what happened. Lizzie’s knees buckled when she saw their little faces. Pedro’s happy one and Alyssa’s suspicious one.

“You found us.” Pedro said coming out and hugging Hope. Hope looked at Lizzie with relieve written in her eyes and in every movement of her body. Lizzie went to Alyssa and brought her to Hope and they hugged. All of them. Lizzie had never felt happier or more relieved in her whole life. When they made sure that the kids were okay, they went to talk with Sebastian.

“What happened?” Hope asked fuming and Lizzie had to hold her so she would punch the life out of him.

“The boy was lying.” He said angry. “Chris. All those years ago. He was lying about everything, His mission was to get inside CIA’s office and plug a pen drive in one of our computers. The pen drive stole information. That was actually how this girl knew about the secret door.”

“But why was she here?”

“Her job was to put another pen drive. This one to insert information in our database; to infiltrate people inside CIA but I caught her.”

“Didn’t catch her enough since she had all of you down there.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“She was a very good fighter. None of our officers here know how to fight because they’re all administrative and surveillance people.” Sebastien said embarrassed.

“So you could beat a teenager?” Hope asked shocked and looked at Lizzie.

“If her job was to put a pen drive and she was able to beat your asses, why didn’t she plug the pen drive and fled? Why was she interrogations you?”

“Their organization made a mistake sending her because she was emotionally attached to the boy that died. Instead of killing us all and leaving, she decided to question me about who killed him but I told her that we didn’t. She didn’t believe me.”

“What is going to happen to her?” Lizzie asked. It wasn’t the girl’s fault that she was raised to be a monster.

“We’ll send her to a maximum security prison and keep an eye on her. Now that we have one alive member, we can try to take as much information as we can. Maybe get a lead.” He said.

“Try not to lose her this time.” Hope said angry. Lizzie, though, was confused. Why would Carly’s organization have so much trouble to sent Hope and Lizzie’s on a fool’s errand just so they wouldn’t be here when Carly was supposed to set the pen drive and run away? Hope seemed to notice that she was thinking about this because when they left Sebastian’s office and were about to take the kids, Hope turned to her. “Let it go. Everyone’s okay.” But Lizzie couldn’t so she went to the cell to talk to Carly. The girl had already woken up.

“Why send me away? Why risk your mission and your life trying to get a confession of guilt?” Lizzie asked.

“He was my brother.” She said after a few seconds. “Not from blood but he was my brother. He was older than me and like I said, the older ones took care of the younger ones. I didn’t know my birthday so he chose one for me and gave me gifts every year on my birthday and Christmas.” She said and for the first time Lizzie saw that the girl was telling the truth. “It wasn’t one of us that killed him.”

“How could you know? You were a child back then and of course they wouldn’t tell you that they did.” Lizzie said softly.

“He was their favorite. A prodigy. He was good at killing and lying and stealing and hacking. They wouldn’t kill their best. When they told me I would be doing this job, I knew it was my chance to know who had killed him.” She said and Lizzie nodded. Emotion always ended up getting the best of people; it didn’t matter if they were the good guys or not. Then Lizzie asked the question she was making herself since they found out that the warehouse staged.

“But why drive me and Hope away from here?” Lizzie asked noticing how Hope had walked closer to her.

“It was my boss’ order.” Carly said standing up and starting to walk in her cell.

“Why would your boss care about me?” Lizzie asked. She noticed that Hope inhaled nervous.

“Not just you. You and your partner.” Carly said pointing at Hope with her chin. “I don’t really know why. I just know what they told me. That they would call you to help on this case because you did on the first one. When you tried to talk to me I should give you the address. I don’t really know what happened with you there.” She said glancing at Hope’s bloody nose from when Lizzie beat her. “They said the order were not to touch you. That you had an owner and we would be clever to stay out of their way. That was why you were supposed to be away. They knew that something could go wrong and I would have to kill everyone here.” Carly said.

“An owner?” Lizzie asked, her minding fearing the answer.

“I don’t know more than that. I failed my mission.” Carly said and Lizzie noticed a melancholy to her voice. “The only thing I wanted was to find out who killed him. It doesn’t matter anymore.” Carly said sitting on the chair and turning away from them. The conversation was over. When Hope and Lizzie left the room, Lizzie looked at her.

“I feel like you know something about it.” Lizzie said quietly and Hope nodded.

“Not much but yes. A few months ago, one of our tech guys found a warning circling on deep web. It was a shared list where criminals put the names of people they don’t want other criminals messing with unless they want trouble. Our names were on the list.” Hope said sighing.

“And you didn’t tell me.” Lizzie said blankly.

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“You should’ve told me.”

“I know.”

“But I understand why you didn’t. Let’s just go home, okay?” Lizzie said, her mind and body exhausted that all this had turned into more than she expected. When they were leaving Sebastian called them.

“I just talked to the director. He’s happy that we got one of them. Alive this time. I can already see a new promotion coming my way.” He said smugly and Lizzie really wanted to punch her face. She dared someone to do something about it if she just punched him so hard that his nose would break. Then something caught her attention. Hope had said that he got a promotion all those years ago but he didn’t do anything more than all the other agents did. Lizzie frowned.

“You killed him.” She said stunned.

“What?”

“You killed him. It was how you got the promotion.” Lizzie accused him and watched as he narrowed his eyes.

“Why would I kill him?”

“All those years ago, you were the senior agent responsible for the case. After the boy died, you pieced together the pieces that told the story. You said that he was part of the organization and that he had rebelled and that was why he got killed. You were lying. You knew that the boy had completed his mission of plugging the pen drive and you knew your career would go down when they found out that you had let a boy steal information right under your nose. So you killed him and pretended that he didn’t steal anything.” Lizzie said shocked. She couldn’t believe he would kill a boy to save his ass.

“You can’t prove anything.” He said smiling and showing them the door. Lizzie shook her head and turned around to leave.

“We’re going to bring you down, son of a bitch.” Hope said leaving his office. When they called the kids and were about to leave, Sebastian smirked at them.

“You can try but I would recommend taking care of those stray orphans of yours before worrying about me.” He said twisting his nose at the kids. “Make sure that they don’t have the same end as that boy.” He said and Lizzie had to hold Hope that tried to kick his ass. If Lizzie let Hope go, she would make him bleed. Lizzie wasn’t paying attention on Alyssa, though, and the girl was just as explosive as Hope because the next thing Lizzie saw was Alyssa kicking Sebastian's balls.

“Take it, asshole. That’s my daughter.” Hope said going to Alyssa and pulling her before the coward son of a bitch tried to hurt her. They left the building with Sebastian cursing them. “You couldn't have made me prouder.” Hope said hugging Alyssa when they were walking away to get a taxi.

“Alyssa kicked the bad guy in the balls.” Pedro screamed imitating what Alyssa had done. They all laughed.

“You really shouldn’t kick people but that one deserved.” Lizzie said bumping the girl with her shoulder. Alyssa only rolled her eyes but when Lizzie looked at Hope from over the girl’s head, she knew Hope was proud and Alyssa was happy and everything was perfect at this moment.

_NEXT CHAPTER_

_I’TS HALLOWEEN!_

_“Stop making so much noise, Lizzie.” Hope whispered._

_“You do know there is no way our culprit is a ghost, right Hope?” Lizzie said rolling her eyes. God forbid people that believe in the supernatural, Lizzie thought gulping. She didn’t believe it either but for some reason, her heart rate was high and her vision blurry._

_“I don’t think that a ghost killed them.” Hope said not so convincing. “But we have to talk low so the actual killer doesn’t know we’re here.” Hope said. They started to go up the creaking stairs. Lizzie rolled her eyes again. Such a cliché to have a creaking stair in an abandoned house. Lizzie told herself that this house was supposed to be scary but in the end everything had an explanation._

_“I don’t even know how you can believe in ghosts.” Lizzie said when Hope jumped because a spider web fell on her shoulder. Then she stopped, eyes wide and mouth open._

_“I think you’ll believe it too.” Hope said pointing at something behind Lizzie. When Lizzie turned around, against all her better judgment, there was a freaking ghost._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DID YOU LIKE IT? LET ME KNOW PLEASE. 
> 
> If you have doubts or just reallr curious about something, tell me; I promise to answer.


	6. Monster House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope and Lizzie have a weird case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE THIS ONE
> 
> We're getting close to the end and I can't wait for you to know what really happened. I left a lot of clues this chapter and I hope you notice them.
> 
> THANK YOU for all the comments. Please keep at it.
> 
> LIKE THIS CHAPTER  
> PLS
> 
> Good read!!!

_There was nothing better than sending your kids to school_ , Hope thought watching Pedro run to his teacher. It had been hard for him to adapt and it took a lot of convincing from Hope’s part that he would like the school and his new friends. After all, it is kindergarten and kids mostly do finger painting and trashy crafts that made parents cry over their children’s artistic potential; that was Lizzie’s take on it. Hope did almost cry when Pedro brought home his first clay sculpture but no one had to know. Hope thought that the nightmares he was having weeks ago were probably related to his fear of starting school and Alyssa was angry at Hope for not noticing it. After they came back home from Alaska, though, Alyssa had been a little warmer with Hope and Pedro’s nightmares had stopped. Lizzie had told Hope to keep an eye on them because even though anxiety about beginning the school year could’ve been the reason they were acting out, it also could be only an aggravation of an entirely different problem and Hope should pay attention to their other behaviors. But then school started and they were actually enjoying it; well, in Alyssa’s case she wasn’t beating anyone or offending them so to Hope that was progress.

And then there was Adoption Course. Hope had been going to those weekly meetings for six weeks now and to say she was bored was an understatement. Hope literally had a child specialist at her disposal, she shouldn’t be obligated to watch parents complaining about the kids or telling their successful stories as was MG and Kym’s case. They were absolutely the worst. Always talking a lot and so damned cheerful that Hope wanted to throw up. They had a daughter a little older than Alyssa and the amount of times they had pestered Hope to meet them someday outside the course so their girls could be friends was out of proportion. Hope always told them that Alyssa and Pedro were still getting used to everything so it would be probably better to wait; forever if it was Hope’s call. The truth is that Hope had met their daughter and much like her parents, she was a little dreamy nerd that barely had looked up from her comic book to talk to Hope and when she did, her big sweet eyes behind the glasses and the little blush from being introduced to someone new made Hope know that the girl was too sweet to even pick up Alyssa’s attention.

“Alyssa, are you sure you don’t wanna go to the school’s Halloween party? We can go costume shopping for something you like today after work.” Hope asked after leaving Pedro at his school and driving Alyssa to hers.

“I don’t feel like going.” Alyssa answered.

“Okay then. We can go trick-or-treating with Pedro.” Hope said. She knew Alyssa wouldn’t want to go to the school’s party. She didn’t have friends. Hope was actually talking to both Rachel and Lizzie about how Alyssa hadn’t made any connection besides Hope and Lizzie.

“I don’t wanna go trick-or-treating either.” Alyssa said when Hope’s car stopped in front of her school. “Bye, Hope.” She said leaving the car and not even looking at Hope. Hope sighed looking at her; every time she thought things were moving forward, something appeared to be on the way. When she arrived at work, she was met with her captain waiting for her in her office.

“I have a case for you.” He said when Hope sat on her chair. He gave her a file and Hope read it.

“Kidnap.” Hope said interested. “His friends reported that they saw him being kidnapped in front of them.”

“Yes.” Her captain said and Hope realized that he was trying not to laugh. Hope narrowed her eyes.

“What’s so funny?”

“Read his friends’ reports.” He said and Hope when to the report’s page. When she read it, she rolled her eyes.

“A ghost kidnaped him.” Hope said incredulous. “Why am I on this case? Why is there even a case to begin with?”

“They’re from another state which make it our case. They’re in town to go visit a haunted house that gets specially haunted on Halloween. He's the son of a senate candidate.” He explained. “Get your doctor and work on it.” He stood up and left. Hope hated ghosts. Not that she believed them but she didn’t _not believe_ them either. A classic case of covering both sides just to be safe. She sighed and went to talk to Lizzie already knowing her reaction.

“A haunted house?” Lizzie’s eyes widened in delight when Hope told her about the case. “I love haunted houses.”

“No, you don’t.” Hope rolled her eyes.

“I mean, I love to proof haunt them and show how it’s all a lie but it counts as loving them.” She said taking the file from Hope’s hands and starting to read it. “Let’s talk to his friends then. They are at a hotel.” Lizzie said excited and Hope nodded. When they were driving to the hotel, Lizzie looked at her. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know. Alyssa doesn’t want to go to her school’s party, what was expected, but she also doesn’t want to go trick-or-treating with us.” Hope frowned.

“Ask her why.” Lizzie told her and Hope huffed.

“Oh yeah, does it look like to you that she tells me anything?” Hope rolled her eyes. “She looks like someone I know.” Hope glanced at Lizzie.

“Like you.” Lizzie said. “Alyssa is just like you.” And at that, Hope frowned.

“How is she just like me? She’s just like _you_. The observation skills, the memory, the way she evades questions by being rude-” Hope started to list and then Lizzie interrupted her.

“Ouch! One, we are not rude. We just can’t stand regular people.” Lizzie said and Hope gave her _a look_. “And two, the way she’s overprotective of her brother, the way she snaps so easily and beat people… that’s all you, Hope.” Lizzie said surprised at Hope for not noticing and Hope’s frown deepened.

“Anyway… I don’t know why she doesn’t want to go trick-or-treating with us.” Hope said going back to the initial issue.

“I think I know why.” Lizzie whispered after some time and when Hope looked at her with a raised eyebrow, she said “Try talking to her. If she decides that she doesn’t want to go anyway, you can leave her with me.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded. When they arrived at the hotel, Hope realized why the FBI was in the case. It was a _very_ rich kid that had gone missing.

“Hello, I’m agent Hope Mikaelson and this is my partner, Dr. Lizzie Saltzman. Can we talk to you?” Hope asked when one boy opened the door.

“Yes, of course.” The boy made a sign for them to enter. Their room was enormous with everything expected in a room with a bunch of teenagers: videogames, junk food, drinks and a lot of clothes tossed on the ground. “I’m Victor. This is Leila.” He said pointing to a girl sitting on the ground with a laptop. “This is Ryan.” He pointed to a boy that was sitting on the couch hugging his legs. “This is Bea and her sister Jay.” He finished pointing to two girls on the couch hugging each other.

“I’m agent Mikaelson and this is Dr. Saltzman. Can you tell us exactly what happened?” Hope asked and the boy nodded.

“We just started our third year on our university. Last year we spent Halloween in a haunted house in Florida and we decided to make it a tradition and do it again this year.” Victor, then, sat on the chair and continued. “We arrived two days ago and last night we went to visit the house.” He looked at the rest of his friends then and gulped. “You have to believe us. A ghost took him.”

“In most cases, a supernatural sighting can be explained by a rush of adrenaline in our system that can be caused by a traumatic event that makes people see things that aren’t there.” Lizzie tried.

“We all saw it. There’s no way we had a shared hallucination.” The girl with the laptop, Leila, said. “I’m a psychology major. I’ve been reading about it like crazy since last night. There’s no way.” She said and Lizzie looked at Hope for her to continue.

“Tell me what you saw.” Hope said.

“We were at the house. The place is huge. We were already one hour inside it trying to find our way out when we started to feel this helplessness and fear beyond everything. At one second, we were all together and the next second we felt this burst of energy pulling Cal away from us. And then nothing. He was gone. We tried to talk with the woman that welcomed us to the house but she was gone too.”

“We’re going to the house to look for him. He could have fallen and passed out in one of the rooms and could still be there.” Hope said and Ryan with the hugged legs shook his head violently.

“He was taken by the ghost.” He screamed and then started crying. One of the sisters took his hand and tried to calm him. When Hope left their hotel and went to the car, Lizzie looked at her expectantly.

“What?” Hope asked rolling her eyes.

“Do you believe it?” Lizzie asked smirking.

“In the ghost story? No. I do believe that someone may have seized the opportunity to scare the kids and kidnap him. His mother is a senator candidate. It could be coercion for her to drop the candidature. That’s why we’re on the case. We’re going to find out.” Hope said and smiled when she noticed Lizzie’s pouting. “What? Did you want me to believe it was really a ghost so you could tease me?”

“Something like that.” Lizzie said huffing and Hope laughed. “Did they warn Cal’s family that he’s missing?”

“The captain was trying to talk to the mother when we left. He said he’d call if he had any info.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded. They drove in a comfortable silence until Lizzie started to laugh out of nowhere. Hope glanced at her.

“This made me remember the Mikaelson-Saltzman Myth.” Lizzie said barely managing to get the words out. Hope grunted.

“That was the biggest con of our career. I still can’t believe they fell for that.” Hope said shaking her head.

“We did prevent another 09/11.” Lizzie said, pierced lips holding a laugh. Hope narrowed her eyes at her.

“After we almost caused it, yeah.” Hope hissed and then looked around as if someone were listening. “By the way, we don’t talk about the last part. Let us be the heroes.” Hope said and Lizzie laughed again. Then Hope joined her because she missed so much the easier times when Lizzie teased her all the time and they would just laugh without a dark cloud over their heads promising a storm. But Hope would enjoy these little moments where she would look at Lizzie and see the bright eyes and the wide smile and think that things were finally getting better. Just 4 months ago, Hope was working alone and having to take children to Lizzie’s office as an excuse to watch Lizzie without being too obvious.

Of course they still talked and sometimes Lizzie went to Hope’s house or Hope would go to Lizzie’s but it all felt so strained, so tense. Hope would try to move earth and oceans to make Lizzie open up with her or just to make Lizzie smile with her eyes. Hope had no idea why, after all this time, they had partnered them up again but it was the best thing it happened. Lizzie was now laughing and teasing Hope and it almost seemed like it never had changed. Lizzie still avoided the _kidnapping subject_ and she never let Hope _touch her_ but she was so happy with Pedro and Alyssa that sometimes Hope would lose track of her mind and let it imagine them as a family. She would remember Lizzie telling her, 7 years ago, that she wanted to have kids and how she seemed so sure that she would have them. She couldn’t help thinking if Lizzie thought the same. She looked at Lizzie again and smiled and Lizzie smiled with her eyes and Hope was sure things were getting better than she expected it ever would. Then the rain started.

It was almost as if the scene was taken right from a horror book. They were driving to the house, that was located at about two hours from the city, and the sky, clear just a few minutes earlier, darkened and rain started to fall in huge droplets. Lizzie looked outside the car and then at Hope. “A supernatural storm?” She teased and Hope narrowed her eyes at the sky. As they left the highway, the storm only worsened and made the midday look like a late afternoon. If Hope were one to believe it, she would be scared already. The sight of the house at the end of the road didn’t help. It was huge, almost like an aristocratic house. The trees didn’t have one leaf on it and the wind was blowing almost as loud as the rainfall. Hope parked her car next to the other one that was already there and they left it running to the front door. They knocked and less than ten seconds later, a mid aged woman answered them.

“Hello, welcome to the Plainsworth House.” She greeted them when they entered the house.

“I’m agent Mikaelson and this is my partner, Dr. Saltzman. We’re here to investigate the disappearance that happened here last night. I guess you were here.”

“No. Last night was Mabel’s shift. She’s the other housekeeper. She’ll be back here tomorrow, though. But yeah, I heard about the missing boy. But it’s been less than 48 hours. Do you have a search order?” The woman asked worried.

“No, we don’t but we’d like to believe you would help in the investigation.” Hope said smiling sharply. The woman sighed.

“It’s not my call. I’ll try to contact my boss. I’m only the housekeeper. Could you wait in the office please?” She said taking then to a room right next the entrance door. When she closed the door leaving Hope and Lizzie inside to wait, Hope looked around. It seemed innocent enough. Not haunted like

“Huh.” Lizzie exclaimed also looking around. Hope recognized Lizzie’s _huh_ like a sign that meant that she had just noticed something random that didn’t mean anything at the moment but it would probably help them solve this case in the end.

“What?” Hope asked curious.

“The noise.” Lizzie said and Hope tried to focus on whatever noise Lizzie might’ve been hearing. She didn’t hear a thing. She did feel something weird. As if her bones were hearing the noise that her ears were supposed to.

“I don’t hear it.” Hope said.

“Exactly.” Lizzie murmured walking around and touching things. Hope looked around too as a weird feeling started to wash over her. It was like being bathtub with room temperature and then, out of nowhere, you feel the water really hot and your mind keeps thinking how you missed that the water was getting hot. Something was wrong even though Hope couldn’t point out what. They waited for about 20 minutes for the housekeeper to come back but she didn’t. Hope looked at Lizzie suspiciously and then went to the door to look for her when she noticed that the door was locked. She tried again and she gulped looking back at Lizzie when the door didn’t open.

“We’re locked.” She said.

* * *

Lizzie knew Hope was trying not to freak out. Lizzie herself was trying not to freak out. Not that she thought that this was really a haunted house and not because they were locked in this room; it wasn’t the first time someone locked them. Lizzie was freaked out because… because… she couldn’t quite explain. It was a visceral feeling and it was so odd for Lizzie that she knew that something was wrong. She tilted her head.

“Is this a _haunted_ haunted house it just a haunted house?” Lizzie asked and Hope frowned.

“The fact that you repeated the word haunted is supposed to mean something?”

“I mean, is this a haunted house like those ones where people actually believe that it’s haunted or is this a Halloween haunted house where people know that someone made it look scary?” Lizzie asked. Hope opened her mouth and then closed. She tilted her head.

“I don’t actually know. I should’ve looked into it before coming here but I didn’t actually think it was haunted either way so I didn’t.” Hope said and then took her phone. “I don’t have connection.” She said showing Lizzie that she had no bars. Lizzie took her own phone and looked at it.

“Same.” She said looking again around. “Remember what Victor said? _We were already one hour inside it trying to find our way out._ That’s what he told us. What if this is an escape room but themed like a haunted house? That would make the experience a lot more interesting.” Lizzie said as she finally spotted the error in the disposition of the books in the bookshelf. “This book shouldn’t be here.” She said pointing at a book called _True Irish Ghost Stories_. “You see the number up there in the shelf? 100. It means Philosophy and Psychology in the Dewey Decimal System. If you notice the other books, they’re all about ghosts too but in a scientific study kind of way.” Lizzie finished pulling the book from the shelf and hearing a clicking noise coming from the door. Hope tried to open it. It was unlocked.

“A freaking Haunted House Escape Room?” Hope shouted angry going to the entrance door just to find a wall there. She looked back at Lizzie. “I guess in order to leave this we have to unlock other places.” She said and Lizzie nodded. Lizzie didn’t like much the idea of being locked. Even though this kind of situation was something she and Hope could manage, the fact that she was trapped kept hammering her mind. And there was the fear; that odd feeling that unsettled her so much. That made her _bones shake_.

“Let’s do what we came here to do and look for the boy. I don’t think that a kidnapper would be stupid enough to keep him here but let’s look for evidence or clues anyway.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded. The place was huge so they better start. And that’s what they did. They looked in the multiple living rooms of the place and in the kitchen and in the music room. This one was particularly _odd_ to be in. As if all the instruments in it were resonating to something even if no one was playing it.

Lizzie also noticed that the fear was building like a balloon. It was filling and filling and filling. Lizzie was merely waiting for it to pop. Lizzie’s breath wasn’t even anymore but short and fast. Lizzie rationalized that this fear could’ve been coming from the place in her mind that she chose to ignore; the place where _memories from being locked_ in another place were kept. She didn’t want to dwell on it. When they finished looking all the rooms, they decided to go to the next floor.

“Wait.” Hope said looking around. “This is a Haunted House. It must have a basement.” Hope whispered and her voice seemed to echo unnervingly across the room they were in.

“We opened all the doors here on this floor.” Lizzie frowned looking around. Then she watched as Hope went to the stairs. She went up and then down. Then halfway through it.

“I think the door is in the stairs.” Hope said kneeling on one of the steps and looking for something that would open it. After she found it, they heard a clicking and then three of the steps opened showing a staircase to the basement. Hope looked at Lizzie.

“There’s always a freaking basement.” She said taking her phone and illuminating the way in. “Blood.” Hope said as soon as the light hit the staircase. They went downstairs and Lizzie felt the balloon filling more. When they found the bodies, the balloon almost popped. Lizzie gasped when she noticed that she had stepped on a hand. “I guess this is Mabel.” Hope said pointing to an incredibly disfigured body that was wearing something similar to the clothes the woman that had greeted them was wearing. This was last night's housekeeper.

“And this is Cal.” Lizzie said pointing at the other body. Despite the fact that Lizzie’s body was reacting bizarrely at all this and the amount of blood that was splashed around, Lizzie only noticed one thing at the moment she saw the boy’s body: its position. The boy had died hugging his legs tight to his chest as if he were so afraid that he had tried to do what small children usually do: close their eyes in hopes that _the monster_ won’t see them. Hope went to him and tried to check for a pulse but then she shook her head. Lizzie noticed that his hands were holding a necklace with a large chain. She was about to comment it when Hope talked.

“Dead too.” Hope said and then lower. “The fact that someone trapped us in here… the killer might still be around.” She whispered. Lizzie took a deep breath, it was time to stop this irrational fear. Lizzie knew this wasn’t a real Haunted House; those only existed in books and movies. All this she was feeling was a totally rational response of her brain to being locked in a place that brought her memories that she didn’t like. She could deal with it.

“Let’s go upstairs and keep looking.” Lizzie said deciding to ignore the damned balloon and focus in the most important matter: finding the _very much real_ killer. They left the basement and Lizzie closed the door to it with a clicking noise.

“Stop making so much noise, Lizzie.” Hope whispered.

“You do know there is no way our culprit is a ghost, right Hope?” Lizzie said rolling her eyes. God forbid people that believe in the supernatural, Lizzie thought gulping. She didn’t believe it either but for some reason she tried to ignore again, her heart race was high and her vision blurry.

“I don’t think that a ghost killed them.” Hope said not so convincing. “But we have to talk low so the actual killer don’t know we’re here.” Hope said. They started to go up the creaking stairs. Lizzie rolled her eyes again. Such a cliché to have a creaking stair in an abandoned house. Lizzie told herself that this house was supposed to be scary but in the end everything had an explanation.

“I don’t even know how you can believe in ghosts.” Lizzie said when Hope jumped because a spider web fell on her shoulder. Then she stopped, eyes wide and mouth open.

“I think you’ll believe it too.” Hope said pointing at something behind Lizzie. When Lizzie turned around, against all her better judgment, there was a freaking ghost. Lizzie’s breath caught and she blinked her eye. There was nothing there.

“There’s nothing there, Hope.” Lizzie said breathing fast.

“So why are you whispering and clutching to my hand?” Hope asked also whispering.

“Ghosts don’t exist.” Lizzie muttered and she didn’t actually know if she was trying to convince herself or Hope. “Let’s go there.” Lizzie said going to the place they had just seen the allegedly ghost.

“If I die in here because of a ghost, I appointed you as the kids’ guardian.” Hope whispered and Lizzie stopped on her tracks.

“What?” She asked forgetting for a moment where they were.

“I had to name a guardian and well, Alyssa and Pedro like you so much and-”

“No! You can’t do that.” Lizzie exclaimed, anxiety taking over her instead of fear. Maybe some fear too.

“I- why not? I just thought that you would like to take care of them in case something happened to me.” Hope said hurt and normally Lizzie would have noticed that, but this house was really messing with her head because she only shook her head.

“I can’t take care of them. You’re the one that do the caring. You’re the one that know what to do when I’m- when I’m in a _state_. I couldn’t take care of them. I would hurt them. Just like I hurt you.” Lizzie said. Then she _saw it_. From the corner of her eye. Her head snapped to the place she just saw it but it was gone. “Did you see that?” Lizzie asked and Hope looked around.

“Something’s very wrong here, Lizzie.” Hope said. Lizzie nodded and just the slight movement of her neck to do it caused a cold air to hit her neck. She looked around again. The feeling of the balloon filling had been replaced by a filling of a lot of balloons filling around her. It was totally disturbing. Her vision was blurry, her nose could still smell the blood from the basement, her mouth was dry and her skin was prickling with something the resembled electricity in such a small voltage that it didn’t hurt but annoyed. And then there were the noise; the one that she couldn’t quite hear but rather _feel_.

“We have to get out of here, Hope. Call the police to pick up the bodies and take it to the morgue. And also just get out of here.” Lizzie said as another ghostly figure crossed her vision. “Now.” Hope nodded.

“How do we open the door?” Hope asked when Lizzie didn’t move.

“There’s probably a whole way of doing it right but how about we go to the entrance room and you shoot the door until that shit opens?” Lizzie asked and Hope couldn’t agree more because she practically ran to the entrance door.

“I can’t just shoot and hope for it to open. I should try to hit the switch. You surely memorized the whole layout of the place when we came in. Where was the switch before this wall covered the door?” Hope asked and yes, Lizzie had memorized the whole layout. She always memorized things easy enough but this time thing were as blurry as her own vision. She shook her head.

“I don’t remember.” She said as a banging noise sounded upstairs and then song came out of the music room. Lizzie brought her hands to her temples. “Think. Think. _Think_.” She exclaimed looking around. The banging noise was now in the stairs. Hope raised her gun to it. Then it hit Lizzie how to get out. She went to the wall and knocked it. As soon as she knocked, the was opened and the door was there. Of course all it needed to open was a knock; most horror movies started when a _stupid_ person answered to a knock on the door in middle of the night even though they lived away from everything in a house much like this one. She tried to open it and she would always thank the higher authority that it opened in the first try because when she turned around to grab Hope and take her outside, she saw something finally leaving the stairs. They ran to the car and the next thing Lizzie knew they were driving away as fast as they could. Away from that _hellhole_.

* * *

Neither of them dared to say a word until they were back on the highway. By now the rain was now just a drizzling. Hope looked at Lizzie. “So…”

“The hotel.” Lizzie said after some time. Hope frowned.

“What?”

“Drive to that fucking hotel and call the police.” Lizzie said and Hope knew better than to say something when Lizzie looked so unsettled like this. She only drove to the hotel trying to make sense of the things she saw and heard and felt in the house. Her head was hurting really bad and all her body felt like she had just left a heavy metal show; it was buzzing. She called her captain on the way to tell him they had found the boy’s body. When they arrived at the hotel, the police was already there waiting for them outside. Hope gave them the order to just get in when she asked and then followed an angry Lizzie inside. Lizzie never let herself get this angry, Hope noticed with certain apprehension. When Victor opened the door again, Lizzie punched him on the face. Hope thought about saying something but well, Lizzie was almost never wrong and if she had just punched him Hope would let her do it again if that was what she needed to release. “You killed him.” Lizzie shouted and that surprised Hope.

“What?” Victor and Hope asked at the same time.

“He didn’t believe in ghosts, did he?” Lizzie asked going the living room of the hotel room where she expected to find the other friends.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Victor said but Hope noticed that his breath was irregular. “You’ve seen the ghost, right?” He asked and when Lizzie didn’t say anything, he looked at Hope.

“There’s no ghost.” Hope said even though she was questioning the validity on that statement. She was actually counting on Lizzie to _Scooby doo_ this shit and get a solution.

“You’re a psychology major.” Lizzie said pointing to Leila. “You’re a Cinema Production major.” Lizzie said pointing at Ryan. “You knew that it was an Escape Room and that they used classic psychological tricks and even cinematographic ones to make the visitors be scared. But Cal wasn’t scared, was he?” Lizzie asked again and one of the sisters, the one that had held Ryan’s hand earlier started to cry. She shook her head.

“He wasn’t scared.” She whispered and Victor looked at her furious.

“He wasn’t scared but he also saw the ghost and he believed.” Victor tried but he probably knew that he was screwed because he asked for a lawyer.

“You’ll need one when I prove that you killed him.” Lizzie said.

“And how are you gonna do that?” He asked incredulously.

“When they match the necklace in Cal’s hands with the marks of a ripped necklace from your neck.” Lizzie said and Victor’s eyes widened, his hands going to his neck. After they went to the office and Hope put each one of them in an interrogatory room, she decided to go with the easier one; one of the sisters.

“Hey, Jay. Hope said sitting on the chair in front of her. I think you want to tell me what happened.” Hope tried softly and the girls, Jay, nodded. She looked at both Lizzie and Hope before looking away ashamed.

“I didn’t know they were going to do this, I swear. Cal was a Physical Sciences major. He didn’t believe in anything supernatural. Victor and Leila decided to prank him. I don’t actually know what happened. I had a terrible headache and my vision was really blurry. I really thought that we were seeing ghosts.” Jay said and then started to cry. “Then we split to try to find the clues to get out of there. I went upstairs with my sister, Leila and Victor were supposed to look at the kitchen and Cal and Ryan in the basement. I don’t know what happened. I just know that we heard a lot of screaming and we went to the basement were it was coming from. When we got there, Cal was already dead.”

“And about the housekeeper?” Lizzie asked. She was calmer now, Hope could see in the way she breathed easily.

“I guess she heard what we did and went to the basement. When she saw Cal dead and Victor’s makeup that made him look like something out of a horror movie, she knew that they were the responsible for Cal’s death. When she tried to go upstairs to call the police, Victor hit her with something. I started to cry and everything went blank. I passed out, I guess. Or maybe not. The next thing I know we’re back at the hotel rehearsing a story to tell the police. Victor called the house’s owner when you left our hotel and told him that two detectives would pop there but they were actually with us and they would just be pretending. That the housekeeper should lock them in and wait for them to get out. I’m sorry.” Jay said crying even more. They left her and Hope had to ask.

“How did you know?”

“When we went to their hotel room earlier today, I noticed a Physics T-shirt on the ground. It was too small to be either Ryan’s or Victor’s. Leila said she was a psychology major and the sisters had matching necklaces with the zoology symbol.”

“And how did you know Ryan was studying cinema production?” Hope asked curious. She never tired of seeing Lizzie show off.

“The laptop Leila was holding had a sticker saying _‘I make movies’_ and when Leila stood up to talk to us and left the laptop on the ground with the screen turned to me, I saw at least 5 editing softwares.” Lizzie said, her usual smug smile at Hope’s stunned face. “I didn’t know for what this information was important until we were at the house.” Lizzie said.

“The house.” Hope echoed waiting, more like hoping, Lizzie would have an explanation for that too. Lizzie seemed to read her because she laughed.

“They probably knew what kind of tricks they used to scare people and only intensified it when they took Cal there. I don’t think they wanted to hurt him but fear is such a powerful feeling that it can actually kill you. I guess that’s what autopsy will find in Cal’s body: that he died of fright. They tried to cover the crime and that was the actual crime. That and killing the innocent housekeeper.” Lizzie said a little upset. Hope’s captain interrupted them and asked Hope to finish the report. When they had closed the case and were on the car driving home, Hope asked.

“Please tell me that we didn’t actually saw a ghost.” Hope said and Lizzie laughed a little strangely as if she couldn’t believe that Hope, and even herself, had believed in a ghost for even a moment.

“It wasn’t a ghost.”

“It looked like a ghost.” Hope frowned.

“It was a hallucination.” Lizzie explained.

“I don’t need to be a Psychology major to know that shared hallucinations are very rare.”

“Low frequency noise. Remember the feeling of a noise that we couldn’t hear but rather feel it in our bones?” Lizzie asked and Hope nodded. “That was what it was. The human ear can perceive sounds above certain frequency, 20 Hertz. Anything bellow that it’s called infrasound. 18 Hertz is the frequency that our eyebrows vibrate so if we spend some time hearing a noise with 18 Hertz of frequency, we most likely will have visual hallucinations which explains why we saw some ghostly figures.” Lizzie said, the scientific tone that she assumed when explaining something making Hope relax a little. But just a little.

“Would it explain us seeing the same ghostly figures?” Hope asked not yet quite believing.

“I’ll blame that on mental suggestion. You saw something and then you tell me ‘ _look, there’s a ghost there_ ’. My mind is at a very susceptible state so it could make me see something in the spot you just indicated. Not that it was exatcly what you saw.” Lizzie said.

“And the agonizing fear and the noises of the house?”

“Low frequency sounds can also cause agonizing fear. It’s widely used in horror movies to produce certain emotions in the viewers. That’s what get people on the edge of their seats; what makes you look around and jump when you’re watching a horror movie. The soundtrack is scarier than the movie itself. The noises from the house were usual noises from a haunted house.” Lizzie said smiling.

"And the rain?"

"Just rain." Lizzie assured.

“So not ghost?” Hope felt like she needed to ask one more time.

“No ghost.” She said and Hope nodded. They drove a few minutes in silence before Lizzie looked at Hope and sighed. “But I did have a reaction that I should explain.” She said calmly. “My mind is what I have. My perfect memory and my skills to notice things no one else does. I got angry that they made the housekeeper think that we were just visitors pretending to be detectives and she locked us in there. It was the first thing that I hated: being locked. Then my mind started to slip away and I felt like I wasn’t in control and that made me desperate.” She then looked Hope in the eyes as Hope parked the car in her garage. “It made me say things I didn’t want to. I’m happy that you trust me with the kids to nominate me their guardian but I don’t ever want to think about something happening to you, okay?” Lizzie said breathing slowly and then taking Hope’s hand. Hope almost gasped at the touch.

“Okay.” She whispered nodding. When she moved her hand just a little in Lizzie’s hands and ended up touching one of Lizzie’s wrists, Lizzie grimaced and softly let go of Hope’s hand.

“Now can we take Alyssa and Pedro costume shopping?” Lizzie asked changing the subject. When they entered the house and dismissed the nanny, Hope went upstairs to get the kids.

“Alyssa, will we go trick-or-treating this year?” Pedro whispered to his sister and Hope stopped in place just before entering their bedroom.

“Do you want to?” Alyssa asked softly in that voice she only used with Pedro.

“Yes. Hope told me I will pick a costume and we can…” The boy hiccupped with excitement then “…we can go. Which costume are you going to pick? I’m going to be a teddy bear.”

“You’re going to look super funny.” Alyssa said and she probably made a funny face at him because he laughed.

“Do you think mo-” Hope’s breath caught “Hope will take long to come home?” Pedro asked hiccupping again. Hope let out her breath. Pedro almost called her mom. _Almost_.

“She’ll be here soon.” Alyssa asked and Hope felt something like worry in her voice. Hope finally entered their bedroom.

“Hey, kids.”

“Hope.” Pedro said smiling broadly. “Are we going to choose a costume now?” Pedro asked.

“Yes. And someone is going to join us, Why don’t you go downstairs and find out whom.” Hope said and Pedro darted downstairs. Hope looked at Alyssa then. She sat on her bed next to the girl. “How was your day, sweetie?” Hope asked.

“Fine.” Alyssa said. Hope noticed that Alyssa was looking away as if she wanted to tell her something.

“What is it?” Hope asked softly.

“I don’t know what to pick.” Lizzie whispered. “I’ve never- they never asked me what I wanted to be for Halloween. Or for anything.” Alyssa blurted out fast. Hope almost didn’t understand the words. “I don’t know how to have fun.” Alyssa whispered at last and Hope’s heart broke.

“Oh, sweetie, you have fun just like you do when you watch a movie that you like so much. When you read that book Josie gave you and you absolutely loved it because I heard you telling Pedro about it or the Harry Potter books that Lizzie gave you and I told you not to read past bedtime but you did it anyway because you’re really stubborn…” Hope said tickling her and the girl smiled “…or when you and Lizzie join forces against me.” Hope finished smiling. “You don’t need to pick a costume but if you do, it can be anything that you want to wear.” Hope said tucking a strand of dark hair behind Alyssa’s ear. Alyssa nodded. “Lizzie’s going to join us. Is that okay?”

“Yes.” Alyssa said smiling. Hope stood up then and helped Alyssa out of bed. When they were about to leave the bedroom, Alyssa held her hand. Hope looked at her. “Thank you.” The girl said a little awkward ad if she didn’t say that a lot. She didn’t, Hope knew.

“Thank you.” Hope said hugging her girl as tight as she could. When they went downstairs, Lizzie looked at both of them and Hope knew that she had noticed that they had talked.

“I hope no one want to steal my costume. I’m going to be Galadriel, the elven queen from Lord of the Rings.” Lizzie said.

“She has a huge crush on the elven queen from the movies.” Hope said in a conspiracy tone to Pedro and Alyssa. Lizzie gasped.

“I don’t have a crush on her. I want to be her. How can I have a crush on someone I want to be? That would be very self-absorbed of me, don’t you think?” Lizzie asked rolling her eyes and when Hope huffed, she looked at Alyssa. “You agree with me, right Alyssa?”

“I don’t know, Lizzie, I think Hope has a point on this. You did mention Galadriel at least three times just this week.” Alyssa said smiling. The smiling turned into a laugh when Lizzie pouted.

“I’m with you, Lizzie.” Pedro said adorably cute when he realized that Alyssa and Hope had teamed up against Lizzie.

The day had been difficult and even a little bit painful but as they left the house to shop costume and have fun with trick-or-treating later, Hope felt every single worry washing away. They had a wonderful night with Pedro as a bear, Lizzie as an elven queen that she definitely had a crush on, Hope as a warrior and Alyssa, Hope smiled looking at the rearview, as a ninja all in black. Maybe Alyssa did have a lot in common with Hope. But also with Lizzie, she had to agree when Alyssa opened one of the books Lizzie had given her and started to read. With Lizzie half asleep in the seat next to her, Pedro already sound asleep on his booster and Alyssa reading right next to him, Hope felt like every single dream could come true. In days like this, she could almost forget that there’s usually a calm before the storm. In days like these she could almost forget the storm altogether.

* * *

_NEXT CHAPTER_

_“It’s just a code.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes._

_“And why does my ten years old need to know a supersecret code?” Hope asked suspicious._

_“I’m just teaching her how to handle herself when in danger.” Lizzie said and Alyssa nodded very serious._

_“She just told me the NSA’s director number and told me to tell her ‘I know about the duckies’ if I’m ever in danger. She explained what it meant.” Alyssa said sat next to Lizzie on the couch._

_“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” Hope asked sitting with them on the couch taking care not to wake Pedro that was sleeping on Lizzie’s lap._

_“I’m helping Lizzie to solve the murder.” Alyssa said and Hope glared at Lizzie._

_“That’s very interesting.” Hope said. “And what did you two learned about it?”_

_“I bet with Lizzie that I could find the relation between the victims before she told me and I won. Now Lizzie owns me all her Agatha Christie’s collection.” Alyssa said proud and Hope narrowed her eyes at Lizzie._

_“All the collection?” Hope asked._

_“All of it.” Lizzie agreed bumping her arm on Alyssa’s._

_“Nice going, girl.” Hope said to Alyssa. “And what is the relation between the victims?” Hope asked curious._

_“Someone is trying to boycott the US by killing our best Olympic athletes.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DID YOU LIKE IT?


	7. And the Gold Medal of Best Killer goes to...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of things happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER HAS A LOT
> 
> IT IS ALSO 12K< so prepare for a long one.
> 
> I REALLY loved to write this one. It has a lot of clues, some cute scenes, some sad ones and a VERY TEASING PROMO FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER.
> 
> I can't wait to finish this season already. I'M SOOOOOO EXCITED. I hope you're having this much excitment I'm having right now as I post this.
> 
> I also really hope you like this chapter cause I loved it.
> 
> NOW GO READ!!!!

“I need your help.” Hope burst into Lizzie’s office startling her. She didn’t even wait for Lizzie to say something before continue talking. “I just got out of a zoom meeting with Freya, Keelin, Rebekah AND Davina. All of them. They just told me that they’re going to spend Christmas with us to finally meet the kids and then Josie just called as I was coming here to say that she’ll be coming too, so I guess that your mom is coming too and now we have to find a way to make nine people comfortable in there.”

“Will mom spend Christmas at your house?” Lizzie frowned.

“Well, Josie will be there and you’ll be there too, I hope, so I guess so.” Hope said also frowning. “Me, Alyssa, and Pedro. That’s three. Then there’s Aunt Freya and Keelin with Nik, six. Then Josie and Caroline, eight. Rebekah and Ricky, ten. And Davina and Kol, twelve. I’ll have nine people over but I only have three bedrooms so I’m going to make a guest bedroom in the attic. I’ll also seize this opportunity to finally build Pedro and Alyssa two separate bedrooms.” Hope finished throwing herself of the couch in front of Lizzie. Lizzie tilted her head. Hope looked so cute when she overreacted. Lizzie used to be the best at organizing family visits and throwing a party for some friends. Hope was trash at it.

“Okay.” Lizzie said. “What’s your idea?”

“Well, I really was thinking about putting Alyssa and Pedro in separate rooms so they can have their own things. I talked to you about it.” Hope said glancing at Lizzie and Lizzie nodded. “I was waiting to do this in January but since the whole family is coming, I thought about making it already, also organize the attic and put some beds for visitors there, maybe some renovations in the house.”

“That’s nice. The kids having separate rooms will be good for them. But we have exactly 38 days till Christmas. Do you think it will be ready that fast?”

“Yes, it will. Remember MG and Kym?” Hope asked with a pointed look.

“How could I forget? You complained about them ever since you started Adoption Course.” Lizzie laughed and Hope rolled her eyes.

“Kym’s brother owns an architecture and design company. I’ll text MG, Kym and her brother and invite them over to a dinner later today so I can hire him for the job.” Hope finished smiling satisfied.

“So why do you need my help if you already thought about everything?” Lizzie asked curiously.

“I know you don’t like people in your house. That’s why Jo and Caroline almost always stay at my place when they come to visit.” Hope started and Lizzie tilted her head.

“That’s not why they always stay at your place and it’s not that I don’t like visitors. They just annoy the hell out of me.” Lizzie said scowling. “Josie keeps fretting all the time and mom likes to watch me sleeping. How creepy is that?” Lizzie exclaimed.

“I watch Pedro and Alyssa sleeping!” Hope shouted frowning and Lizzie rolled her eyes smiling at her g- at Hope. That was weird. Lizzie thinking _that_.

“They’re small, not a 30 years old.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“I won’t annoy you. Your apartment has two bedrooms so the kids can stay in one of them and I sleep on the couch. I just don’t want to stay with them at a hotel till the house is ready.” Hope said.

“I guess so.” Lizzie frowned and Hope jumped out of the couch.

“Thank you so much.” She said starting to leave Lizzie’s office. Then she stopped. “By the way, Josie told me to tell you to stop ignoring her calls and making your secretary lie that you’re busy.” Hope laughed when Lizzie sighed dramatically. When Hope left, Lizzie decided to call Josie. She answered on the first ring.

“Why?” Josie asked. “Why do I have to call Hope to get her to make you answer me? Is she your secretary now?” Josie huffed. Lizzie rolled her eyes. This was exactly why she didn’t… “And I know you’re probably thinking _‘This is exactly why I don’t answer her on the phone’_ ” Josie said in a very poor imitation of Lizzie. “If you actually answered, I wouldn’t have to be so annoying.”

“Hey, Jo.” Lizzie said smiling despite her sister’s complains.

“Hey, Lizzie. Did Hope tell you that mom and I are coming to spend Christmas with you?”

“With me? More like with Hope.” Lizzie said and she tried to let the resentment out of her voice.

“Mom wants to meet the kids and you’re a pain in the ass that never invite us to your apartment, so yeah, with Hope.” Josie said and Lizzie knew she had just rolled her eyes. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. You?”

“I’m bored. I hate teaching. Can’t wait for this semester to end so I can go back to the field and solve real cases.” Josie said. “And you? Are you solving a lot of cases?” Josie asked and Lizzie told her about Sebastian bringing Hope and Lizzie to solve a case, about the _not haunted_ house and about the other cases they’d worked together since they had been partnered. “That seems a lot of excitement.” Josie said in that tone that Lizzie didn’t quite like. The tone that Lizzie herself used when she was talking to a small child.

“Yes. Now, Jo, I really gotta go. I’ll text you later.” Lizzie said.

“Okay, Lizzie. Call mom. She wants to talk to you. I love you.” Josie said.

“I love you too.” Lizzie said hanging up. She thought about calling her mom but she decided to do it later. She could only handle small doses of her family at a time and she had just talked to Josie. She was already stressed since today she wouldn’t be able to do field work with Hope because she was supposed to do her _real job,_ her boss’ words, as a psychologist and review the other doctors’ evaluations about patients. Since she was responsible for this whole floor; her own doing since she had found a way to get the last head psychologist retired early because he was a prick that accepted money to give wrong psychological evaluations; Lizzie had to prove constantly that she was better in her 4 years as a psychologist for the FBI than he ever was in his 20 years. Not that it was difficult, Lizzie was really good and he had been very bad. The fact that she had spent _some time_ in a mental institution helped her a lot in identifying small behaviors or tells in the criminals. Not that anyone knew about that part; they actually thought that she had spent time in the institution _working undercover_ and praised her about it. _Stupid asses_. Only three people besides Lizzie knew everything about it. _Hope knew about it_. Lizzie had to take a deep breath when she remembered how she had hurt Hope; how Hope kept trying to reach her. How she avoided Hope as if she were the plague. How the only real reason Lizzie got out was to take care of Hope and in the end Hope was taking care of her.

She shook her head and decided to focus on the files in front of her. There was no point in dwelling on the past and Lizzie had way too many demons on hers to even dare a peek at it. When she finished all her work for the day and was ready to go home, she found Hope waiting for her in the waiting room of her office. Lizzie looked at her secretary’s annoyed face. The woman didn’t like Hope. It was really Hope’s fault for bringing troubled kids to Lizzie’s office when she strictly told her not too. That usually turned Lizzie’s already bad mood even more sour and Lizzie would almost always make her secretary’s work even harder because of it.

“You can go home.” Lizzie told her and it was all she needed to pick up her purse and go. She usually had to take Lizzie home after work but since Hope was here, her secretary had permission to leave Lizzie with Hope. The fact that people needed to babysit Lizzie used to be more annoying but Lizzie got used to it and to be honest, Lizzie wasn’t sure if this were a fight she wanted to pick. “What do you want?” Lizzie asked Hope as they went to the elevator.

“Dinner, forgot?” Hope asked frowning.

“No, I didn’t but why do I have to be there?”

“Because you have nothing to do and I really want you to meet MG and Kym so you can hate on them with me.” Hope said smirking. Lizzie knew the real reason, though. Hope spent too much time over the last years trying to get back their relationship just as it used to be and for the first time Lizzie had finally allowed Hope to get close again and Hope was doing everything not to let go. Somedays, Lizzie would think that it was because Hope cared so much about her that she knew that if she ever really given up on Lizzie, Lizzie would numb herself to everything and everyone and autodestruct; that showed very weak faith in Lizzie even if Lizzie recognized that this was a very likely path. Other days she thought that the reason Hope didn’t let go was because Hope bared as many emotional scars as Lizzie bared physically and she needed this relationship to work just because she would have no idea of what to do if it didn’t; and this spoke to Hope’s own insecurity that Lizzie knew too well. But there were days when Lizzie was feeling fine that she thought that it was simply love that made Hope do it all. Not that there was anything simple about love; it was stubborn, it was feral and scarier than anything else. Lizzie often wondered how love could be both the greatest gift and the worse nightmare. Lizzie loved her mom with the easiness of someone that loves the first person they had conscious of when they were little and needed their mom for everything. Lizzie loved Josie because they had been together forever and they had felt each other’s pain and sadness and happiness and life. Lizzie also loved her father, even though he had abandoned them; Lizzie could pretend that she didn’t care or avoid talking about him as a way to ignore any presence of him in her life but the truth is that she also loved him in the period that he had been with them. And she loved Hope. While Lizzie’s love for her family wasn’t chosen or learned; she did know that over the years the love for her family shifted and increased; her mom had become more than just a physical and emotional provider as she grew up and understood what a loving mother meant. The love for her sister had also shifted from something fragile as a companion to do everything to a friendship bond carved in blood and tears and fire and everything they had shared with each other. The love for her father had shifted from a love of an adoring child to the distant love of an abandoned one. But Hope was different because she was the first person that Lizzie wasn’t genetically designed to love. Hope was a choice even if Lizzie would argue sometimes that she didn’t have a choice at all but to love the fierce, hot-headed, trust-no-one woman that had swiped Lizzie off her feet faster than a hurricane would. That Hope had chosen Lizzie too was a surprise that Lizzie was still trying to figure out why. It scared Lizzie that she had loved Hope so much that she had stopped acting logically and made terrible decisions; it scared her even more that Hope loved her so much that she had almost killed herself for Lizzie. Because of Lizzie. _Lizzie remembered that_. She also loved the children; hers and others’. She loved to work with them and fight for them and try her best to correct wrongs that made them sad; Lizzie loved her job with children. She also loved _her_ kids, Alyssa and Pedro. They weren’t hers but rather Hope’s but Lizzie loved them so deeply that there’s no way that you don’t gain a little ownership over someone you love that much. She loved Pedro because he was innocent and loving and content with such small things that it broke Lizzie’s heart. Then there was Alyssa. Lizzie loved the _fierce, hot-headed, trust-no-one_ girl that was willing to do everything to make sure that her brother was safe and happy even if that costed her own safety and happiness; how that reminded Lizzie of Hope. How that scared the hell out of Lizzie. How love altogether scared the hell out of Lizzie.

Lizzie realized that she was breathing harshly when Hope’s hand touched Lizzie’s and Lizzie recoiled at the contact. It wasn’t Lizzie’s intention; Lizzie had already moved past the feeling of pain that touch caused. _Almost_. She recoiled because it was unexpected and her body reacted before she _willed herself_ to accept it. Lizzie hated herself for it. She hated herself more that it happened with Hope. _That she was Pavlov Experimented to reject Hope_. That was what made her angry the most. Lizzie didn’t apologize. Hope didn’t need her too. Both knew it weren’t their fault. Instead, Hope kept driving them home without touching on the subject.

When they arrived, Hope dismissed the kids’ nanny and started to get things ready for the dinner. Hope cooked and Lizzie watched TV with the kids as if this was their everyday routine. A few minutes before the time Hope had set up with Kym, she called a meeting. “I have to talk to you all.” Hope announced and Lizzie and Alyssa narrowed their eyes at each other. “I told you earlier that we have visitors tonight so let’s talk about behavior. Alyssa and Lizzie, please don’t be rude with our guests. I need your help.” Hope started and Lizzie huffed.

“If you weren’t trying to get something from them, would we be allowed to misbehave?” Lizzie asked rolling her eyes.

“I would actually tell you to misbehave. You’ll get it when you meet them.” Hope whispered with a face looking at Lizzie and Alyssa. “You always have to behave.” Was what she said out loud, though. “Now you, Pedro.” Hope said looking directly at him.

“Me?” He asked with a sweet face.

“Yes, you. Don’t make this innocent face. No throwing your vegetables under the table. We don’t have a dog to eat the evidence.” Hope said narrowing her eyes.

“Maybe we should have one.” Pedro said under his breath rolling his eyes and Lizzie noticed Alyssa trying not to laugh.

“Yes, Hope, maybe we should have one.” Lizzie repeated just to annoy Hope. Hope glared at her.

“No dog.” Hope said to Pedro at the same time the doorbell rang. She went to the door and answered them. A feel seconds later, three adults and a girl joined them in the living room.

“Hey, guys. Let me introduce you all.” Hope said. “This is MG and Kym, my friends, and this is their daughter, Clara.” Hope pointed at them as she said their names. Clara blushed when Hope said her name. She was the cutest child Lizzie had ever seen. Shoulder length straight hair, huge glasses, a blush that seemed permanent and that blended perfectly with her dark skin. She was wearing a really colorful dress that made her look like a princess in her coronation day. But the prettiest feature about her was definitely her eyes; they were shining with sheer happiness of those that face life with excitement. When Lizzie looked at her parents, she saw the same lit up eyes.

“Hello, I’m so glad to finally meet you all.” MG said smiling broadly. “This is my brother in law, Kaleb.” He said raising his hand for Hope, Lizzie, and the kids to take.

“These are Alyssa and Pedro.” Hope introduced them and then looked at Lizzie. “And this is Lizzie, my friend.” And as everyone greeted each other, Lizzie thought about how unnerving it was to be called _friend_. Of course, she was Hope’s friend but to someone that was once _more_ , being called friend looked like a real punch in the gut. Before Lizzie’s mind went down the usual path of over analyzing words, something caught her attention. Lizzie watched as Clara walked to where Alyssa was and raised her hand to her. That Alyssa ignored everyone her age at school and pretty much all the teachers unless she was directly talked to, was a topic that Hope and Lizzie had discussed a lot about approaching with Alyssa. Lizzie had worked with kids from foster care or recently adopted before and building connection used to be really difficult for them so she advised Hope to give Alyssa more time. Lizzie glanced at Hope and noticed that she was tense about bringing this much people to her house for the first time since the kids had come to live with her, but she was also seeing this opportunity as a test for when the family came for Christmas. Lizzie knew the Mikaelsons and they were loud and nosy and borderline overbearing. Much like Lizzie’s own family; her mother and sister being the personification of nosy and overbearing. Christmas would be hell on Hope’s house and Lizzie was glad that she could just run away back to her apartment if they tried to corner her _to talk_.

“I’m so glad to meet you, Alyssa.” Clara said excited. “Your mom told me that you like to read mysteries so I brought you a gift.” Clara said giving Alyssa a perfectly wrapped book-shaped package. Alyssa looked at it and Lizzie practically felt Hope’s breath caught in her throat as they waited for Alyssa to pick up the gift. The fact that Clara had called Hope Alyssa’s mom definitely didn’t get lost on Hope judging by Hope’s inaudible gasp that Lizzie had trained herself to recognize over the years. “I also got you a purple teddy bear, Pedro. Your mom said it’s your favorite color.” Clara said using her other hand to give Pedro a purple bear with a yellow bow tie. Pedro’s eyes widened and he accepted it with wonder.

“Yes, it’s my favorite color. I love it!” Pedro said jumping. Lizzie noticed with a smile how Alyssa’s defensive behavior shifted and she took Clara’s gift.

“Thank you, Clara.” Alyssa said, a sincere smile on her lips. Lizzie felt more than she saw Hope’s relieved breath.

“Let’s eat then.” Hope said more than a little relieved.

Hope was right. MG and Kym were the absolute worst. They laughed so much that Lizzie thought that she was in a circus at some point. It had been a very long time since she had talked with people that laughed this much. Even Pedro, the usually happy and talkative out of the four, was speechless.

“…and then I told him that superman would never beat my superhero and that’s how I got my first comic published.” MG finished and even Lizzie that enjoyed comic books was tired of it all.

“Come on, brother, no one wants to hear about your nerdy comics.” Kaleb said speaking for everyone and MG made a fake hurt face.

“I’ll change the subject since no one cares about comics.” MG said and then looked at Hope. “I’m so glad that you invited us here. We got really surprised when we saw your address.” MG started and Kym continued smiling.

“Yes. You’re not gonna believe it. We just bought a house in this neighborhood last week.” Kym said and Lizzie almost cackled at Hope’s face.

“Oh, really?” Hope asked glaring at Lizzie warningly.

“Really. We’ll move in in about two weeks when the painting and renovations are complete.” Kym said and then looked at Clara. “Clara really loved this area’s school and she’s pretty excited about having a friend living close.” Kym finished looking at Alyssa and Lizzie almost laughed again because the girl had the same _god-help-me_ face Hope had. After dinner, they went back to the living room and talked a little more. When Pedro slept and Lizzie took him upstairs to his bedroom, Hope seized the opportunity to take Kaleb upstairs too and show him the house. When they finally left Hope’s house, not before Clara hugged Alyssa so tight that Lizzie wondered if Alyssa’s allergy to human contact would need medical intervention and then Lizzie internally kicked her own ass because hypocrisy, Hope turned to Alyssa and Lizzie with a huge grin.

“I had to bribe him into taking my project fast and I also promised him to get MG and Kym a good security system to their new house at a good price but it played out. He told me he’s coming tomorrow with some guys to draw a project.” Hope said triumphant.

“They’re going to move close to us.” Alyssa said grunting.

“There’s that.” Hope said glaring at Alyssa. “Good way to break the mood, kid.”

“I liked them.” Lizzie said casually, earning a stunned look from both Alyssa and Hope.

“As if. You don’t like anyone.” Hope said and Lizzie frowned. Funny how that’s how people viewed her; not that it was untrue. After getting Alyssa to bed and cleaning up the kitchen, Hope joined Lizzie on the living room. “Call your mom before going to sleep.” Hope said and Lizzie grunted.

“She called you too?”

“No, but Josie texted me saying you’re avoiding her.” Hope said showing Lizzie one of Josie’s least aggressive texts that read. ‘ _Get that person I call sister to call mom. She’s avoiding her._ ’

“Does Josie think that I-” Lizzie started but Hope interrupted her.

“…listen to me?” Hope asked. “I guess she does. Poor her. You don’t listen to anyone.” Hope said sighing dramatically and Lizzie smiled. Then her smile faded as she called her mom. Even though it was late, her mom answered fast. Lizzie guessed that she and Josie, Hope too probably, had Lizzie’s number to ring with a different tune so they would know it’s Lizzie calling and could answer faster than Lizzie could give up and press _end call_.

“Honey. I’m so glad you called.” Caroline said with that motherly voice that made Lizzie’s eyes prick with tears. She looked away from Hope.

“Hello, mom. How are you?”

“Better now, baby. You?”

“I’m fine too, mom.”

“And Hope? Is Hope okay?” Her mom asked in that innocent way that always sounded like a way to get more information than Lizzie was willing to give. Lizzie looked at Hope.

“She’s fine too.” Lizzie said and her mom sighted. It was funny. _Before_ , Lizzie would talk and talk and tell her mom or sister every single detail about everything she could. Hope would have to hit her with something so she would stop talking and actually ask something about them. Not that Lizzie wasn’t interested in her mom or sister’s life before; it was actually quite the opposite. She could know if they were happy, apprehensive, sad, worried, or angry just by hearing them on the phone. Aligned with what Lizzie knew about their lives, she could really guess almost every major thing that had happened without them having to say it. She still could, judging by how she knew her mother was so, so sad. The difference, though, was that Lizzie wasn’t so eager to talk about herself anymore nor was she interested in asking her mom about why she was sad; Lizzie knew the reason. “Do you wanna talk to her?” Lizzie asked shoving her phone on Hope that only narrowed her eyes at her.

“Hello, Caroline.” Hope said putting the phone on speaker.

“Hello, Hope, honey. Josie told me today that you invited us to stay with you for Christmas.” Caroline said and Lizzie huffed. _Invited_. More like Josie told Hope they’d be staying there. Lizzie tried not to feel _weird_ about it again. It was her fault that her family didn’t stay at her apartment. The reason Lizzie felt this odd feeling, though, was because they didn’t try anymore. Every time Josie came to town, she stayed with Hope and every time Lizzie’s mom came to town she stayed with Bonnie, one of her high school friends. They sometimes went to Lizzie’s apartment but they never stayed more than a few hours. It was like they accepted that Lizzie didn’t want them there and moved on. Lizzie wasn’t being fair but she guessed that if Hope still tried, her family should too. Of course, Hope knew the whole story so maybe that was why she still tried. Not for the first time, Lizzie thought about telling it all to her sister and finally try to get back part of their old relationship where they told each other everything; but as the times before, she dismissed the idea. It wasn’t time yet because she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe she would be after Hope and the kids had spent some weeks in her apartment without any trouble. _Maybe she was finally getting better_ , she thought ignoring the voice at the back of her mind that laughed at it. _His voice_.

“Yes. My family is also coming to town so why not get the whole bunch together?” Hope said a little awkward. She really wasn’t a social person. While Lizzie was a party person, at least used to be, Hope had always been one to prefer a quiet night at home stuffing herself with candy and watching cooking shows or real crime documentaries. Lizzie used to find it so lovely; one of the many reasons she _had loved_ Hope.

“Is it really okay, though? I know how this time of the year can be hard for you. There’s also Lizzie…” Caroline said, apparently unaware that she was on speaker. Lizzie’s eyes snapped to Hope.

“It’s okay, really. I-”

“Because if it’s going to be a problem, Jo and I can stay with Bonnie. This year you have the kids and also your whole family coming and you know well how they’re very hectic.” Lizzie’s mom continued saying and even though she had just stepped in a mine field a few seconds ago, Lizzie couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes at her mom, of all people, calling the Mikaelsons hectic. The irony was too much for her to ignore. Hope also thought the same because she gave Lizzie a pointed look.

“That’s really okay, Caroline. Now I’ll give you back to Lizzie. See you soon.” Hope said shoving back the phone on Lizzie. Lizzie scowled. She talked with her mom about light topics that her mom, being organization-obsessed like Lizzie, probably had written down for the rare case that she would get to talk with her daughter for more than 10 minutes. When the safe topics had been covered and Lizzie was about to say goodbye, her mom asked:

“Are you really okay with us coming? I know you usually spend Christmas alone-” Her mom said and Lizzie tilted her head. She didn’t. She had spent the last four Christmas with Hope. “And I wouldn’t want to force you to something you’re not ready for-” It wasn’t just that Lizzie wasn’t ready for, she also hadn’t wanted to.

“That’s okay, mom. I’m working on it.” Lizzie said.

“Are you?” Her mom asked hopeful.

“Yes. Let’s say that over the next few weeks, I’ll really have to learn how to share my space.” Lizzie said finally letting herself think about what it meant for her that she had let Hope and the kids move in.

“When are you going to finish your work?” Hope asked when she opened the door. Lizzie, not used to it yet, jumped a little. She also grimaced as Pedro entered the door running and threw his backpack on the couch and as Alyssa followed him and sat on it.

“I don’t know. I still have a bunch of files to go over.” Lizzie answered pointing at a large binder filled with patient’s files. It had been two days since Hope had moved in. Two days that Lizzie had almost ran away screaming. Two days since she had been controlling herself not to make them run away screaming. It was a tiring job. Lizzie couldn’t get over the feeling that Hope and Alyssa, and even Pedro, were observing her every act.

“Why?” Lizzie asked and she watched as Hope threw herself on the couch next to Lizzie.

“I have this case.” Hope started and then looked at the kids. “Go to the bedroom to put away your things. Lizzie’s couch is not the place.” She said and they obeyed. “It’s an accident.”

“So why is it a case?” Lizzie frowned.

“Because I’ve been avoiding closing it for the past five days?” Hope said unsure and then sighed. “This girl died from a food allergy. It seems unsuspecting, right?” Hope asked and Lizzie nodded.

“So why are you suspecting?”

“It just feels weird. This girl is an athlete that cares more for her body than anything else in the world. Why would her be so careless as to eat something that would kill her?” Hope asked and one thing caught Lizzie’s attention.

“An athlete, huh?” Lizzie asked and Hope nodded. Lizzie frowned. “You might be right. Why don’t you email me the file and I’ll give it a read while you go to your Parenting Class.” Lizzie said and Hope glared at her. “Don’t look at me like that. You have to go.”

“Okay. You sure you don’t want me to leave the kids with the nanny?” Hope asked and Lizzie almost pleaded with her to take the kids to the nanny but then Lizzie listened to the rational voice and shook her head.

“That’s okay.” She said and Hope nodded. After taking a shower and eating something fast, she left Lizzie’s apartment. Lizzie ordered pizza because she was a failure in the kitchen and let Pedro watch TV while she read Hope’s file and Alyssa sat quietly in a corner probably noticing all the small signs of Lizzie’s OCD that could be seen all over her apartment: the methodically organized bookshelves that had been rearranged twice since Alyssa had come to Lizzie’s place, the four locks on the door that Lizzie made sure to lock and unlock by herself and that Lizzie had to control herself not to cry when Pedro unlocked one himself today morning; the way Lizzie woke up in the middle of the night to check if was still locked. There were also the scars. When Pedro first saw Lizzie’s arms filled with scars, his eyes widened and he told her that he also had a scar. Then proceeded to show her a scar on the inside of his hand that he didn’t remember getting there. Lizzie almost laughed, or cried, at the irony of it. She did notice, though, that Alyssa’s breath caught; Lizzie wondered if it was because of Lizzie’s scars of because there was a story behind Pedro’s. Lizzie had just finished finding a link to Hope’s case, when she noticed that Alyssa had sat next to her.

“Why do you avoid Hope?” Alyssa asked and Lizzie noticed that protectiveness that used to be solely for Pedro now applied to Hope. Lizzie felt a little jealous about it.

“I don’t avoid Hope. She’s my best friend.” Lizzie said aware that it sounded like a very lame answer. Alyssa noticed it too. “Why do you avoid her too?” Lizzie asked maybe a bit too mean. After all, Alyssa was a child. But Alyssa didn’t back down, she only looked away and then back at Lizzie.

“I was taught to avoid. What’s your excuse?” Alyssa asked and Lizzie laughed.

“I was too, clever-pants. Now change the subject.” Lizzie said in that blunt way that usually made people flinch. Alyssa only looked at her bored.

“What are you doing?” Alyssa said in fact changing the subject.

“Helping Hope with a case.” Lizzie answered.

“Can I help you?” Alyssa asked and Lizzie glared at her.

“You know Hope will probably scold me, right?”

“Please?” Alyssa asked and Lizzie almost laughed at how Alyssa grimaced saying please.

“Okay.” Lizzie said and she showed Alyssa the file of Hope’s victims; no photos of course because she wasn’t that crazy. She also showed the two other victims that Lizzie had found when she crossed references with the cause of death of Hope’s case. When she finished showing it Alyssa, she decided to test the girl. “Did you find the connection between the victims?”

“Besides them being dead by the same cause?” Alyssa asked frowning. Lizzie tried not to worry that she was teaching a child to find links between dead people.

“Yes. There has to be another connection or else we can’t really say that they are related.” Lizzie explained and Alyssa nodded.

“What do I get if I get it correct?” She asked and Lizzie raised an eyebrow.

“The satisfaction of getting it right isn’t enough?”

“No, I want your Agatha Christie’s books. Hope said they’re your favorites.” Alyssa said and Lizzie laughed out loud. The girl was amazing.

“Okay. It’s a bet.” Lizzie said knowing that Alyssa probably had already figured out the relation. She was very much like Lizzie in this aspect and she wouldn’t bet if she weren’t sure she would win.

“They’re sport players.” Alyssa said with a smirk and Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“It was easy to figure out that they’re athletes but I’ll give it to you.” Lizzie said and Alyssa went to Lizzie’s bookshelf to admire her prize.

* * *

Hope was _tired_ tired. Apparently, inviting MG and Kym to her house was an official act of friendship and now they thought Hope was their best friend. Hope wasn’t really a social creature and small talk with them was Hope’s nightmare. She would rather do desk work. Staying at Lizzie’s made Hope even more tired because she had to constantly make sure that Pedro didn’t get anything out of its designed place or opened one of the locks or makes too much noise if he wakes up in the middle of the night. She also worried about Alyssa because she was old enough to realize Lizzie’s things and Hope was just waiting for her to ask; she had no idea what she would explain to the girl. Then there was Lizzie. This was Lizzie’s place and Hope knew she was feeling overwhelmed with it being occupied by other people besides her. Staying at Lizzie’s also made Hope remember how bad it had been and how just now it was getting better.

There was also work. Hope had been working without Lizzie for one week and it was a nightmare. She knew she had just started working with Lizzie again five months ago but she had gotten used to it and now that she was alone again till Lizzie finished her own work, Hope had been really testy. It was probably the reason why she hadn’t been able to find out why she had suspected that the food allergy was more than it seemed. Hope knew something was wrong but she couldn’t point a finger at what. _Maybe Lizzie could_ , Hope thought driving back to Lizzie’s place. Her captain had already scolded her for keeping this _clearly closed_ case open for five days. He may have also implied that Hope had lost her ability to function alone as a detective since Lizzie had joined her. _That doctor is bad news, Mikaelson. And a sociopath, that’s my opinion but apparently people upstairs don’t even want to listen to me when I try to talk about it._ The fact that Lizzie doesn’t even try to be polite with him only makes it worse.

Her family wasn’t being helpful either in relieving Hope’s stress. Freya had called Hope three times this week to talk about finishing Hope’s custody papers; Hope had to appoint a guardian to the kids in case something happened to her after the adoption was finally completed and Hope had been avoiding talking about it with Lizzie again after the last time she tried. Part of her also didn’t want to get into a fight with Freya because she knew her aunt would tell her that Lizzie wasn’t the best person to take care of the kids; Hope hated herself for thinking that sometimes too.

To be honest, Hope was just generally tired. She was relatively happy, sure. The kids were amazing and even though they made Hope tired physically sometimes, they also make Hope feel complete in a way she hadn’t in quite some time. Lizzie was also being so open that Hope had to hold herself from hugging her tight and keeping her inside forever. After years of trying, everything was going back to what it was and now, _five years late,_ they would finally have their first Christmas together with both their families. Hope was happy. Or she should be. At least was what she kept telling herself. But as December came close, the only thing Hope could think about was that everything was too good to be true; that they had been building a house of cards that was about to be wrecked. No matter what Hope did, the dread didn’t leave and she was trying her best to make it leave before Lizzie could notice it. Or Alyssa. Or Pedro. She actually felt like she was the one trying to hold the damned house of cards together; that if she did just one wrong movement, it would all fall apart and people would look at her disappointed. Sometimes Hope could barely breath.

When she finally arrived at Lizzie’s apartment, Lizzie was again talking to Alyssa about murder. Tired didn’t come close. “Why do I get home and you two are talking about murder and classified US codes?” Hope said with a raised eyebrow startling them. It was easy to forget the dark cloud approaching when she looked at the scene in front of her: Pedro’s head resting on Lizzie’s lap as he sleeps peacefully, Alyssa cross-legged and turned to Lizzie smiling and Lizzie on the middle of the couch distractedly playing with Pedro’s hair while she explained Alyssa what to do in case she was in trouble.

“Oh, Hope. I found a connection to your case. Another two victims died of a food allergy in the last month.” Lizzie said excited. Alyssa nodded in agreement.

“That doesn’t explain why you were telling Alyssa about _‘the duckies’_.” Hope said air-quoting it. Lizzie hadn’t told her nor Josie the meaning of it when she told them about it. It wasn’t fair that Hope’s child knew, Hope thought mentally rolling her eyes.

“It’s just a code.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“And why does my ten years old needs to know a supersecret code?” Hope asked suspicious.

“I’m just teaching her how to handle herself when in danger.” Lizzie said and Alyssa nodded very serious.

“She just told me the NSA’s director number and told me to tell her ‘I know about the duckies’ if I’m ever in danger.” Alyssa said sat next to Lizzie on the couch.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” Hope asked sitting with them on the couch taking care not to wake Pedro that was sleeping on Lizzie’s lap.

“I’m helping Lizzie to solve the murder.” Alyssa said and Hope glared at Lizzie.

“That’s very interesting.” Hope said. “And what did you two learned about it?”

“I bet with Lizzie that I could find the relation between the victims before she told me and I won. Now Lizzie owns me all her Agatha Christie’s collection.” Alyssa said proud and Hope narrowed her eyes at Lizzie.

“All the collection?” Hope asked.

“All of it.” Lizzie agreed bumping her arm on Alyssa’s.

“Nice going, girl.” Hope said to Alyssa. “And what is the relation between the victims?” Hope asked curious.

“Someone is trying to boycott the US by killing our best Olympic athletes.”

“This is far fetch, Alyssa.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes and laughing. “You can’t just jump to the conclusion. The only thing we know for sure is that in over the last twenty-eight days, three athletes died of food allergy and that’s too much of a pattern to be just a coincidence.”

“How did you find out about the other victims?” Hope asked.

“When you told me earlier about the girl and you said that she was an athlete, I remembered that the cousin of one the guys that works with Maya in the computer lab, Phil, just lost his boyfriend to a food allergy. And guess what? His boyfriend was a swimmer.” Lizzie finished and Hope’s eyes widened.

“That was why I knew I was missing something. I knew I had heard about something like that.” Hope said shaking her head at how she had missed. Maybe her captain was right about the part that she had forgotten how to work alone.

“After I had already your victim and another one, I searched for another death like this and came up with our third victim. It wasn’t your fault that you couldn’t find anything. These deaths didn’t get attention because they look pretty accidental and happened with young, not yet famous athletes.”

“They were about to be famous.” Alyssa pointed out and Lizzie nodded.

“Yes. They were on the list of probable convocation for the next Olympics. But young and not famous yet. The fact that they died of an apparently unsuspecting death, like you said, helped it not to get attention.”

“So we have a serial killer?” Hope said glancing at Alyssa that watched it all with interest.

“I wouldn’t classify it as serial killing.” Lizzie said distracted and Hope frowned.

“Because there’s no cooling off period? They could have killed before and we just don’t know it.” Hope pointed out.

“What’s a cooling off period?” Alyssa asked and Hope wondered if she could lose the custody of the kids if Rachel knew that she was about to explain to Alyssa that serial killers take a resting time.

“Serial killers are seasonal killers. They kill one or more victims and then take a time to rest before killing again.” When Alyssa opened her mouth to ask something; probably why they take a resting time, Hope beat her to it. “Because the killing they just did releases their tension so the can wait till the tension builds up again to kill.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t think it is a serial killer.” Lizzie said. “I think she’s killing them out of revenge. Something happened that made her start killing.”

“Her?” Alyssa asked echoing Hope a few years ago when she was still getting used to Lizzie’s fast thinking.

“Poison is usually a woman’s weapon. Organized, cold, clean, fast.” Lizzie explained.

“Except it wasn’t clean. Anaphylactic death is not clean at all.” Hope said.

“Which indicates that the this is something personal for her. Now that you have a cause and more victims, ask the morgue to get this autopsy on top priority. They’ll get it finished by tomorrow afternoon. Ask them to analyze the stomach content too.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded.

“I will also ask for an exhumation of the other two victims. If it was dismissed as an accidental death, they didn’t get autopsied.” Hope said. Then she looked at Alyssa that was trying to hide her yawn. “Time for you to sleep, huh?” Hope asked standing up and carefully taking Pedro from Lizzie’s lap. She walked to Lizzie’s guest bedroom and placed Pedro on one of the single beds. Then she kissed him. When Alyssa laid on the other bed, she sat on it. “Did you have a good day at school?”

“Yes.” Alyssa said and Hope felt very much like Caroline trying to get more than monosyllables from Lizzie when the subject was something that she didn’t want to talk about.

“And did you think about what I talked to you? An extracurricular activity?” Hope asked. Rachel and Lizzie had talked to Hope about the importance of giving the kids tools to express themselves and that usually could happen in an activity of their choice. Hope had asked Pedro and he was fast to say one: art classes. Hope had already enrolled him in a children’s art class and he would start next week. Alyssa, though, hadn’t chosen an activity yet.

“Martial arts.” Alyssa said almost whispering. Hope noticed that the girl didn’t look Hope in the eyes probably afraid that Hope wouldn’t like what she chose. Hope didn’t but she wouldn’t be one to cut the girl’s wings. After all, when Hope was seven and her own parents asked her what she wanted to do in the free time, she told them that she wanted to learn how to fight. They didn’t say no despite her father being there almost every class to make sure that no kid would beat his little princess. Hope’s wasn’t about to say no to her own daughter.

“That’s very nice. Do you know which one you want to start with?” Hope asked smiling when Alyssa’s eyes lit up.

“I thought about Jiu-jitsu. There’s an academy next to our house.” Alyssa said and Hope tried not to freak out that Alyssa had called ‘ _our house’_. She usually called it The house.

“That’s perfect. I’ll go there tomorrow and check with them when you can start, okay?”

“Okay.” Alyssa answered satisfied; genuinely happy.

“Now sleep.” Hope said tucking her in and kissing her. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Alyssa said. When Hope closed the door and when back to the couch, Lizzie was smiling.

“Did she tell you that she chose an activity?” Lizzie asked probably reading Hope’s expression. Hope nodded. “She looks up to you, you know. She wants to be just like you.” Lizzie said with fondness. “Fighting also fits her well like it fits you.”

“She called it our house.” Hope said sitting next to Lizzie on the couch. Lizzie laughed.

“That’s good. After all, the adoption hearing will be on the December 26th. Just one month till the adoption is finalized and they finally get Mikaelson on their names.” Lizzie said smiling.

“I can’t believe it.” Hope said also smiling. A mother. “I wish my mom and dad were here to see it.” She whispered.

“They’re here. You’re totally made of genetic traces of their behaviors and feelings so you know that they would’ve been proud of you. If you’re like them in this sense, I guess they would probably beam themselves to tears watching you with the kids. And even though Alyssa and Pedro never met them or any of the Mikaelsons, they are already part of the family. They’re part of mine too. Josie will definitely buy them funny Christmas sweaters and mom will spoil them until they’re rotten if you let.” Lizzie said in the open and emotional way she only let herself be next to Hope. Hope didn’t miss that Lizzie didn’t include her in the mix. Hope knew it wasn’t because she didn’t care or because she was trying to detach herself from them; Lizzie didn’t include herself for fear of hurting them.

“And you’ll be there doing everything that I tell you not to with them. Like talking about murders or supersecret codes with Alyssa.” Hope said smiling at how Lizzie’s breath caught. “Or giving them pizza for dinner in the middle of the week.” Hope said pointing at the pizza box on the kitchen’s counter. Lizzie blushed a little.

“I don’t know how to cook.” She explained herself.

“Or agreeing with Pedro about getting a dog.” Hope added and Lizzie laughed.

“Every kid need a pet even if I’m partial to cats.” Lizzie said and Hope remembered that one time they had a mission that almost turned a mess because Lizzie had to save the damned cat that had just scratched Hope. Lizzie said that the feline had recognized Hope as a threat as everyone should. Hope didn’t mention that all cats were creatures hell-bent on recognizing anything but themselves as threats.

“You’ll be there too.” Hope said again and Lizzie nodded gulping. “Now, I gotta ask something.” Hope said shaking her head. “What the hell is it with the duckies that you told Alyssa but not me?” Hope asked to ease the mood. Lizzie laughed.

“It’s not really that cool of a story.” Lizzie said and Hope raised her eyebrow.

“Well, it involves the NSA’s director personal number in your phone and a code that makes her release classified information or help you or your related people since you told Alyssa that she could use the code and I also used the code. I’m sure it’s interesting enough.” Hope said and Lizzie nodded.

“Three years ago I was required to have a psychological evaluation. You know why.” Lizzie said with a pointed look and Hope nodded. She knew. “I was in the waiting room with this little girl. She was painfully shy and I noticed that she kept glancing at the only kids’ magazine on the table so I sat next to her and gave it to the girl. She tried to say thank you but she stuttered so much that she couldn’t get it out. I knew something about stuttering myself…” Lizzie said and Hope tried to ignore the flashbacks. “… so I taught her something that I used to do when I stuttered.”

“You didn’t do anything when you stuttered. You only said that if we couldn’t understand, fuck us.” Hope frowned. That was a very Lizzie thing to do even when she was in pain.

“Well, I told her that.” Lizzie smirked and Hope’s eyes widened.

“I can’t believe you said that to a child.”

“I didn’t use offensive language if that’s your concern. I told her that I used to stutter too and that I tried so much to get words out that it made me so nervous that I wanted to cry. Then I figured that it would be better if I just wrote what I wanted. I said that and then gave her a pen and a blank journal. The girl didn’t look at me when she wrote ‘you’re talking normally so you’re just lying’. I laughed at her and then said that I had other techniques too. When she was writing down asking me which techniques, her mom left the psychologist office and I was called. I stood up to get in but Aimee held my wrist and asked, ‘ _Which techniques?’_ without stuttering more than three times. Then I winked at her and said that I had just taught her the first one: don’t focus too much on the words you’re trying to say. Then I went to my exam. When I left the room about one hour later, Aimee and her mom were still there.

_“So now you can work with children.” Kennedy asked._

_“I thought that the reason I was taking this exam was classified.” Lizzie said raising an eyebrow._

_“Not to the NSA’s new director. That was why I was taking the exam.” Kennedy said smiling. “I want to hire you as my daughter’s therapist.”_

“…after that I started working with Aimee. Kennedy had just started as the NSA’s director and I had just gotten authorization to work with kids so I became her daughter’s therapist. My first patient. Two years after that, I was at Kennedy’s house with Aimee when I noticed that something was wrong. I told Aimee to hide in her secret place and went to Kennedy’s office. When I got downstairs, the first thing I noticed was the two bodyguards bleeding on the floor. I called the police and then went to her private office.” 

“Always snooping around instead of waiting.” Hope rolled her eyes.

“Thankfully, I did that because the man was about to kill Kennedy. He kept asking ‘ _what do you know about the duckies? Tell me!’_ and I knew that even if Kennedy knew something about the duckies, she wouldn’t say because she was trained not to. So I entered the office and told him _‘I know about the duckies_ ’. It was the just the distraction Kennedy needed to take him down.”

“He could have shot you, Lizzie.” Hope said exasperated.

“Most likely but he didn’t and after that it became a code of mine. Now Kennedy trusts me so much that she just sends me whatever information I need if I tell her this code.” Lizzie said laughing when Hope shook her head. She should’ve expected that from Lizzie. Then Lizzie yawned tiredly and stood up to check the four locks on her door. “Goodnight, Hope.” Lizzie said going to her bedroom. When she was about to close the door, however, she stopped and looked at Hope on the couch. “I thought about you when I did that. I thought about how you would feel if something happened to me again.” Lizzie said not entirely looking in Hope’s eyes. “There were some moments that the only reason I cared about me was you. I knew how it would make you feel.” Lizzie whispered and then closed the door leaving Hope with _that_ to sleep on. Expectedly, sleep never came that night.

To say that Hope was stressed the next day was an understatement. After a very bad night with awaken nightmares of Lizzie suffering and Alyssa and Pedro _being taken away from her_ because Hope wasn’t a good fit for them and now having to go to two families to ask them to exhume the bodies of their family members, Hope was very anxious. She was about to go talk to her captain when she decided to stop by Maya’s lab. The woman was breaking apart a computer. Hope had heard that she was trying to get in on this computer for two days, but the encryption had been so hard that she decided to break the computer to get a safe exit door to get in and finally get the information she needed.

“Hey, Maya. Any success?” Hope asked looking at it.

“No. This computer is beating my ass. I have to do it very carefully because the information in here can take down a politician.” Maya explained taking out her lab glass and her gloves. Hope had to admit that Maya looked very hot in her computer tech suit.

“I need a favor.” Hope said smiling when Maya rolled her eyes.

“When don’t you need one? What is it this time? Put another tracker on Lizzie? Hack into someone’s phone?”

“A background check. In this children’s martial arts’ academy.” Hope said giving Maya a card. “Alyssa wants me to enroll her there but I won’t do this unless I know everything about the owners and the reputation of the place.”

“You’re totally going to be that mom that checks their boyfriends and girlfriends’ background, huh?.” Maya said laughing. “I’ll give it a look. How is doc, by the way? I tried talking with her yesterday to ask about how things are going with you and the kids moving in but she only told me to hack into her security cameras and see it since I was so fond of hacking her things.”

“Sorry about that.” Hope said grimacing.

“Nah, you don’t need to be sorry. She’s not really angry at me. She knows you’re the responsible. I’m also dating her secretary so she has to get used with me popping in her office all the time.”

“Wait, you’re dating her secretary? That woman even smiles?” Hope joke not really joking. The woman hated Hope and Hope had never seen her smile.

“She smiles for me.” Maya said cocky, throwing her hair back in a seductive way. Hope smiled.

“I’ll let you finish your work now. Text me when you get that background check done.” Hope said and left the computer lab. When she went back to her office, her captain was waiting for her. He gave her some papers to sign.

“I just got out of a call with the Sports Commission. They want to know if their athletes are in risk and what are the targets of this killer.”

“I have to wait for the autopsy and interview the families of the other two victims.” Hope said frowning at him.

“Yeah, Mikaelson, so do it fast. Now that you asked for exhumation and put out the word that we have a killer targeting young athletes, we have nosy journalists, sports committees and even other agencies on us for information. Get it done fast.” He said leaving her office. Hope was stressed and focus on the case by the media was the last thing she needed. That was why she went to Lizzie’s office. Hope told herself that she was not only helping herself but also saving Lizzie’s life from the boredom of inside work. When she left the elevator on Lizzie’s floor, she heard a commotion.

“… and you, stop sleeping with your patients. If you’re not going to take your job serious, I’ll just fire you.”

“You can’t fire me.” A woman said apparently angry.

“Do you wanna bet?” Lizzie asked. Then, “And you…” Lizzie said talking to another one of the psychologists “You write like nine years old. If you don’t start to write your reports better, I’ll make you attend a writing lesson for five-graders. Understand?” Lizzie finished. The people around her had different levels of annoyance, rage and fear on their faces. Lizzie looked at Hope.

“What do you want?” She asked. Hope took Lizzie’s jacket from the hanger and then gave it to her.

“We have a case.” Hope said and dragged Lizzie out. When they were in Hope’s car, Hope explained. “I know you have your work to do but we have to talk to the families and I need you to make a profile for our killer. So far, we know that it’s a woman in her twenties that is probably an athlete of related to one. She also met our three victims at some point before their death. We need more.”

“She may work in a lab.” Lizzie said and Hope glared at her.

“Why?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll know when I get a look at the autopsy. Will it be finished today?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes. The exhumed bodies just arrived at the morgue.” Hope informed her as they parked in front of the house of one of the families. “Let’s talk to them.”

* * *

Lizzie hated talking to families about their dead or missing people. It hit home and Lizzie wasn’t that good at comforting people. So she watched as Hope talked to the families and just focused on their reactions to see if they were hiding something. Sometimes Lizzie got surprised by how much you could learn by just watching who’s the first person someone looks at when they get bad news or good news. Like in the last house they visited when Hope informed the family that it was probable that their daughter had not died because she developed a late food allergy, like the doctor's diagnostic had said when they took her to the hospital a few minutes before she died; the first person the mother of the dead girl looked at wasn’t her husband, but his brother. Her hand even reached for him before she could control her reaction and turn to her husband and hug him for comfort at the news that their daughter was assassinated. She was cheating on her husband. When they finished with the families and they were about to leave the last house, Lizzie noticed something. When they went back to the car, she looked at Hope.

“Autopsy results?” Lizzie asked. Hope picked up her phone and called the coroner.

“What do you have for me?” Hope asked him and put it on speaker.

“I just finished the autopsies in the three bodies but I’m not sure of what I found. It may be because the stomach content of the last two bodies were already useless and we couldn’t know for sure what it was. I sent it to the lab for them to analyze it but I don’t think they’ll find something just like I didn’t find in your victim.” He said taking long to go to the point like he always did. Lizzie hated it. She rolled her eyes.

“They didn’t find the food that was supposed to cause allergy in the stomach of the victims.” Lizzie said and Hope looked at her confused.

“What?” She asked.

“You can dismiss him. That was what I needed to be sure.” Lizzie said and Hope heard him talking a little more and then hang up.

“How does someone die of a food allergy without having eaten the food?”

“By injecting the allergen directly in the person.” Lizzie said with a pointed look and Hope’s eyes widened.

“That’s why you think she works in a lab.” Hope guessed and Lizzie nodded.

“In the Health and Movement Lab to be more specific.”

“How do you know that?”

“While you heard people crying, I was paying attention to other things and I noticed a picture of Elliot Cho, our first victim in front of this lab and a bill from the same lab in Christine Clarke’s family house. If Amelia Silva, the last victim, also got her exams done in this lab, we just found the place in common.”

“The place where the probably met the killer.” Hope said understanding what Lizzie meant. “Let’s check it out.” She said starting to drive them to the lab. When they got there and introduced themselves as from the FBI, the supervisor came to talk to them.

“I’m Julie Fritz and I’ll answer any questions you have.” The woman said taking them inside the lab. “Health and Movement Laboratories is a reference in research in the field of sports. We work with people from all over the country and even from other countries in the fields of drug abuse, viruses, blood anomalies, allergies. Everything that could make a potential athlete less successful. We propose diets that help them achieve goals, we prepare whole teams to go to competitions in an environment different than ours. For example, last year we prepared 22 soccer players to go to a tournament in Peru. As you know, Peru is way upper the sea level and that makes our athletes, not used to the place, start with a disadvantage. We worked with them to lessen this disadvantage. For the first time in ten years, an US soccer team was able to get to the finale.” The woman was saying the rehearsed speech that she probably gave everyone.

“What can you tell us about your researches in the field of allergens?” Lizzie asked when she was bored of the woman talking.

“Well, we’re proud to say that our works with people with severe allergies have achieved a great level of success. We were able to lessen the effects of allergy in a 58% of our severe cases just this year and most of our clients that face some protein deficiency caused by a food allergy or intolerance have been recovering by taking some of our experimental synthetic pills.”

“We have three of your clients that died from a food allergy just this month so I’ll need more.” Hope said and the woman went pale.

“What?”

“Christine Clarke, Elliot Cho and Amelia Silva died from a food allergy.” Hope informed and the woman’s mouth opened.

“Amelia? She didn’t even have a severe food allergy.” She whispered in shock. Then she seemed to realize that she should do her job because she straightened up and looked at Hope and Lizzie intensely. “We’ll help you in whatever you need.”

“I need their medical records.” Lizzie said and the woman nodded. She took them to her office and asked her secretary to get the records fast. He seemed to see the urgency because he only took a feel minutes to deliver it.

“Here. In there you’ll also see the names of the doctor that were treating them and the date of every consult they had with us this year. Now, if you excuse me, I have to call my boss to inform him of what happened.”

“The boss probably knows. I let out the news that it was a murder earlier today. Every single person related to the Sports’ world knows about it. I have no idea why the supervisor of this place wouldn’t.” Hope said as she read the medical record.

“Because she was in the hospital with her child.” Lizzie said distracted.

“How do you know that?”

“She forgot to take off the bracelet they gave to visitors and companions in the Saint Marta Hospital. It’s a yellow bracelet which means that the patient is pediatric.” Lizzie explained and then pointed at something. “Alex Chavanni. He’s the research doctor in these two records.”

“This one too. So that’s out killer?” Hope asked and Lizzie nodded.

“She has to be.” Lizzie said. They both stood up and left Julie’s office.

“Can we talk to Dr. Alex Chavanni?” Hope asked to Julie when she asked them what they needed.

“Of course. Doctor Chavanni is still in the research lab. I’ll take you there.” Julie said and proceeded to take them. When they were got there, they found a woman cleaning the lab. “Where’s Dr. Chavanni, Linda?” Julie asked.

“The doc had to take some samples to the testing machines upstairs.” The young woman said. “You know how the doc doesn’t go home until the job is finished.” She said with dreamy eyes. _The woman was totally in love with the doctor._ Lizzie rolled her eyes at it. In love with a killer. That would make the infatuation go away very quickly. But when they went upstairs and finally met Dr. Chavanni, Lizzie couldn’t believe that she had gotten it wrong so badly.

* * *

“This is Dr. Chavanni.” Julie said introducing them. “Dr. this is agent Mikaelson and Dr. Saltzman from the FBI. They wanted to talk to you.”

“Of course. I believe I know why.” The man said sad. Hope glared at Lizzie with a face that asked exactly what Hope was thinking _wasn’t him supposed to be a woman?_ “I couldn’t believe when I heard the news earlier today. You see, I didn’t really met those people because I’m only a researcher. I was working with their blood results and physical exams for months, though.”

“We believe that someone killed them.” Hope said having no idea what to do. “Did you work alone in their cases?”

“Yes. I’m the allergen scientist in this unit. I get all the clients’ with food, insect or fabric allergy. I also work with mild intolerances like milk or soy intolerance.” He explained shaking his head. “And the records are totally classified. I have no idea how it could have been leaked for someone to kill them using exactly what they were allergic to. Especially miss Silva. She wasn’t even a severe case. She had a mild milk intolerance that we were treating.” He said still stunned. Hope noticed that Lizzie was tilting her head.

“How did you get in a wheelchair?” Lizzie asked changing completely the subject. Hope’s eyes snapped at her. “I just noticed that you have a very athletic body. Did you used to be an athlete or are your hobby Paralympic athletics?” She asked in that blunt way that was totally hers.

“I used to be an athlete, actually, but five years ago I had an anaphylaxis shock that landed me in this wheelchair. I was one of the few cases of anaphylaxis that evolved into a stroke that made me paraplegic. Since I had a degree in biology, I decided to go back to university and get my PhD. I work for this lab for about a year.” He explained realizing how this story made him look. “And I know that my story is way too similar of those that were killed and that makes me a suspect but the only reason I decided to specialize in allergens and health was because I wanted to help people not to lose their dreams like happened to me. I’ve been working hard on it and saving people’s life. I don’t take them.” He said and Hope believed him. Not only because he was in a wheelchair and there was no way he could have committed the crimes but because he sounded real. But that also meant that they were back at square one. The only suspect they had turned out to be innocent. When they left the lab, Lizzie was stressed, Hope could feel it.

“We have nothing. Besides that Christina’s mother is cheating on her husband, Elliot’s brother is owning money to a drug dealer and the cleaning lady has the hots for our doctor do-gooder.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes.

“Wait, how did you get all that?” Hope asked laughing. “You know what? Never mind.” Hope said shaking her head.

“I can’t believe I got it wrong.” Lizzie said frowning. “It had to be someone with access to both their medical records and the allergens injections.”

“Well, Lizzie. It’s almost seven. Let’s go home and tomorrow we try a new approach to see if it works.” Hope suggested and Lizzie nodded. So they went home. When Hope was about to get into Lizzie’s apartment, she got a text from Maya saying that the academy was clean and that they would start a new beginner class on December 1st. Next week. Hope smiled happy and told Alyssa as soon as she got home. The girl was delighted. They ate dinner and went to sleep. Hope had just fallen asleep after watching three hours of her favorite documentary, when she heard Lizzie getting out of her bedroom. Hope thought that she was going to check the locks on the door as she usually did in the middle of the night, or anytime she was home to be exact, when Lizzie poked her.

“I know who did it.” Lizzie whispered still poking Hope. Hope grunted.

“What?”

“Our killer. It’s the cleaning lady.” Lizzie whispered as if it were obvious.

“Hadn’t you said that our killer someone with both access to the medical records and the allergen shots?” Hope asked, shifting to a sitting position and facing Lizzie.

“Yes. And she had. But think with me. She had access to their records because she cleaned the record room that was located in the same floor as Dr. Chavanni’s lab. Also, working in a lab, she probably got a lot of information about how it all worked. She had to clean the lab every day and she could have stolen samples from the allergens to kill our victims.” Lizzie said sitting next to Hope.

“But why would she do that? A normal person in love wouldn’t just kill a bunch of innocent people just because she was angry at what? Fate that put her loved one in wheelchair?”

“No, someone normal wouldn’t, but an obsessed person would. That’s her. I knew I had noticed something. I just couldn’t place it at the moment but now it all fits. Her knuckles were red as if she brushed something so much; as the knuckles of someone obsessed with cleaning would be. Her clothes were impeccable even though it was the end of the day; her cleaning moving station was more organized than me files’ cabinet at work and that is something. The whole floor was shining; nothing out of place. If she has this same obsession with a person…”

“She could have easily killed someone if she though that she was correcting something.” Hope finished and Lizzie nodded. “I’ll call someone and get her to the interrogation room right now so we can talk to her in the morning. Making her wait will make her disturbed.” Hope said calling someone.

When they got in the bureau in the morning, Linda was already waiting. Lizzie and Hope went to the interrogation room and the first thing Hope noticed was how impatient the woman looked. Impatient but not worried or scared. That was weird. For someone that had committed a crime, she was surely very calm.

“Linda, I’m agent Mikaelson. We met yesterday at the lab. I’d like to ask you a few questions, okay?” Hope asked and Linda nodded.

“Have you heard about the deaths of Christine Clarke, Elliot Cho and Amelia Silva?” Hope started.

“Yes, I have, agent Mikaelson.” Linda answered.

“Can you tell us what you were doing in the days of the murders?” Hope asked showing Linda a file with the dates that the victims were killed.

“Yes, I can. I was trying to make perfect.” Linda asked and Hope tilted her head.

“Whom?”

“The sinners. I was trying to help them to get better.” Linda answered and then Hope noticed that Lizzie eyes widened.

“What were their sins?” Lizzie asked.

“All of them.” Linda said disgusted. She looked between Hope and Lizzie. “Greed for the money and status that their career would give, pride of what they had that the other didn’t, envy of what others had, lust that made them sick. They were all sinners. Just like Dr. Chavanni was.”

“But Dr. Chavanni got better, right?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes, after he was purified by the sickness that took away his movements. Now he left behind his life of drinking and bragging and envying and now he works to make people’s health better. To save people’s life.” Linda said passionately.

“You wanted them to go through his transformation.” Hope said when she understood what had happened. “That’s why you killed them, right?”

“Yes, I wanted to make them clean but they weren’t redeemable anymore. That why they died.” Linda said shaking her head with pity and Hope believed that she was actually pitying the ones she had just killed. “I tried to save their lives but it was too late.” She started to cry. Hope looked at Lizzie. They left the room speechless.

“That one was totally crazy and I do have an experience with that.” Lizzie said shaking her head and Hope agreed. Working with law enforcement occasionally brought cases like this. Nuts was the only thing Hope could think about. But at least they had been able to catch the killer, even if she were going to spend the rest of her days in a mental institution because as soon as any lawyer set eyes on her, they would plead insanity. It was another surprising day at work. Hope hated surprising days.

* * *

NEXT CHAPTER IN THE SEASON FINALE

_“Who gave you this, Pedro?” Hope asked voice trembling._

_“He told me he was your friend.” The boy answered. “That you would like this amazing art.” Pedro said. Lizzie heard their voices and came to them smiling. Her smiled faded, though, when she saw the marks on the boy’s arms._

_“No!” She said shaking her head. “No, no, no.” She whispered, the snow globe on her hand falling and breaking. Caroline, apparently unaware of what was happening screamed from the front door the news that only made it all worse._

_“The Mikaelsons are here.”_

_[…]_

_“Lizzie, just tell me, please. I gave you time, space and I would continue to give you whatever you wanted but Lizzie, look at me.” Hope said taking Lizzie’s face and ignoring the grimace on her face when Hope touched her. “I need to know it all.”_

_[…]_

_That couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. That was the only reason that the fact that Hope felt so detached, so unnervingly powerless could be explained. Hope watched as if from above her body as Josie fell to the ground, blood all over her; as Alyssa kicked and screamed and fought tooth and nails to run away from the man holding her; as Pedro cried and pulled Hope’s hand trying to make her move, make her save them all pleading ‘mommy, please, mommy’. Some part of Hope noticed that it was the first time he ever called her mommy but that part was numbed. So she watched as all the people she loved were being taken away from her. And she did nothing._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENTS.
> 
> TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS. I CAN'T WAIT TO KNOW THEM. I'M FEEDING ON THEM. 
> 
> Ps: thank you if you read this longass chapter without jumping a paragraph or two hahaha
> 
> Also tell me what you think of the promo for the next chapter.


	8. I Wish You a Sad Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY FINALLY
> 
> Hahaha it took long. I had planned to post it till the weekend but damned Taylor Swift decided that a surpise album would be my new obsession for the following days so I could do nothing but listen to her songs while staring at the ceiling. I hope you did to. Go stream folklore if you didn't.
> 
> I'm REALLY scared with this chapter. It's the last one and I really want you all to like what I wrote so please read it with love in your little hearts. It's long because there is a lot to it.
> 
> You can scream at me in the comments. You can always scream at me in the comments.
> 
> PLEASE LIKE THIS CHAPTER 
> 
> I LOVE YOU ALL
> 
> FOLKLORE BY TAYLOR SWIFT

**DECEMBER, 5 YEARS AGO**

_“I’ll get home late.” Hope said as soon as Lizzie picked up the phone._

_“Again?” Lizzie said pouting as if Hope could see it. “It’s movie night! Do you want me to cook dinner then so we don’t start the movie late?” Lizzie asked trying to be useful. Hope huffed._

_“No, thank you. You’re good at a lot of things, babe, but cooking is not one of them. Your food is literal trash. We’ll just order something when I get home.” Hope said and Lizzie knew that she was smiling. It made her smile too._

_“Ouch. That hurts. Why will you be late, though? Are you working on that serial killer’s case again? Is your captain making you stay late just because you’re new?” Lizzie asked almost ready to go there to fight for Hope. Not that Hope needed it but Lizzie was ready, nonetheless._

_“I’m working for the FBI for less than a year so you know how it is; they make me stay late writing reports, organizing files or in this case, reviewing this maniac’s killing method trying to see a pattern.” Hope explained and then sighed. “This person’s really bad, Lizzie.” Lizzie knew Hope was shaken about what she was seeing. Ever since she started working on this killer’s case a few weeks ago when they decided to kill again that Hope had been really quiet and sad. Lizzie’s heart would break a little more every time Hope got home after an especially difficult day._

_“I already told you that I can give it a look.” Lizzie said, maybe for the millionth time._

_“It’s classified, Lizzie. I can’t show it to a civilian.”_

_“I’m barely a civilian. We worked together in the CIA and we were their best assets. I also just got my psychology PhD last week and the FBI already accepted me. I’m just waiting till the holiday season’s finished so I can take my behavior exam and be polygraphed so they can finally give me a badge and we can work together again.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes as she went to her car to go back home. She had just come to the university to pick up her diploma._

_“They won’t pair us up again, Lizzie.” Hope said and Lizzie knew that she had just bitten her lip like she did when she was wondering something._

_“Of course they will. We’re national heroes, ex-spies with a hell of a reputation and hot. We’re basically an advertisement for a successful crime show.” Lizzie said to make Hope laugh. She was very good at it. Her best job, in her opinion._

_“You love those crime shows, don’t you?” Hope asked laughing._

_“You watch them too!” Lizzie accused as she entered her car._

_“No, I don’t. I watch documentaries about real crimes. Not those fairytale land shows you like where everything is possible, they always find the bad guy and there’s a romance between the two protagonists, one of each has a trauma or trust issues or lost their family to a bad guy that got away with the crime. Or worse: all of the above. Unrealistic.” Hope exclaimed and Lizzie laughed._

_“The recipe to success, that’s what I say. Why do you think crime shows last so long? There’s an established formula for that. Now quit stalling and send me the files you’re reading. I’ll even be nice and make a profile of the serial killer for you.” Lizzie tried. To be honest, she was curious. In the CIA, she had worked investigating and putting behind bars assassins, mass murderers, moles and spies from all over the world. That was actually why she had decided to change from psychiatry to psychology: she got very interested in how their minds worked. So when she and Hope decided that they wouldn’t work for the CIA anymore, Hope soon started to work for the FBI and Lizzie went back to university to shift her focus to behavioral science. She was still a doctor, the CIA hadn’t lied when they promised her a residence; they actually gave Lizzie a lot of practical experience in the two years she worked with them; but she had decided that psychology fitted her better. Now Lizzie had finished her PhD with honors and already had her spot guaranteed in the FBI to work as a profiler; Lizzie had discovered that she was really good at it and she had already made some profiles for the FBI as a consultant while she was in university. The fact that Lizzie had also focused on child behavior was a plus; too few FBI profilers specialized in profiling children. So ever since Hope started to work in this case, Lizzie had been begging her to give Lizzie some information so she could put her new acquired knowledge to practice. Hope had been ignoring Lizzie by saying that Lizzie’s doctorate was barely a paper saying that Lizzie was good at it but Hope knew that Lizzie was already good at it before she had to go back to university to learn it so she could wait just a few weeks when she was officially an FBI agent to put it to practice._

_“I’ll be kicked out of the FBI if they find out that I told you anything about it.” Hope warned._

_“Not if I help you and you catch them.” Lizzie offered and she knew Hope was thinking about it; Hope knew Lizzie noticed details no one did and that made her amazing with profiling._

_“I’ll send you the files through our encrypted email. Read it when you get home and make a hell of a profile since I’m putting my head on the line for this.” Hope said and Lizzie beamed._

_“When don’t I do things amazingly?” Lizzie said cocky and she knew Hope rolled her eyes. “See you at home. Love you.”_

_“Love you too. See you soon.” Hope said and hang up. Lizzie started the car and went home fast. She had a serial killer to catch._

* * *

Hope was nervous. Exactly one week till Christmas. Eight days till the Adoption Hearing that would officially make the kids hers and Hope would stop having nightmares about it going wrong. Her house was finally ready and she was moving back in with the kids today. Hope wanted everything to be perfect and she hoped that the kids would like the bedrooms Hope had meticulously designed for them. Even though this was one of her childhood houses, Hope didn’t much care about what Kaleb was doing with the rest of the house, but she had made a deal out of planning the kids’ rooms herself. So of course she was nervous. When she parked her car in the garage, the kids left the car running leaving Lizzie with Hope.

“Come on, they’ll love it.” Lizzie said rolling her eyes. Hope nodded and left the car too. When they entered the living room, Hope saw the kids’ eyes shining with curiosity. Hope had chosen some photos of the kids and added to the wall of family pics. Hope noticed that Alyssa, particularly, was staring at a picture of her and Pedro in their Halloween costumes. Hope watched as the girl took a deep breath. After seeing the renovations downstairs, Hope took them upstairs to Pedro’s new bedroom first. Hope thought it was beautiful. The walls had little animals that Hope had painted herself just last weekend, his bunk bed had a roof that made it look like a tree house and there were stuffed animals everywhere in all freaking colors Hope could find. Hope had added a bedside lamp that made light shaped animals. The boy could barely contain his excitement.

“I love my new bedroom. Look at this purple whale, Lizzie.” He said shoving Lizzie a giant purple whale that Hope knew he would love. He, then, ran to Hope and hugged her. “I love it, mo-Hope.” He said and then looked at his sister. “Did you like my new bedroom, Alyssa?”

“I loved it.” She said quietly, a blatant contrast to her brother’s excitement. Hope knew that she was excited too, she just wasn’t so loud about it like Pedro was.

“Now let’s see Alyssa’s bedroom.” Pedro said taking Alyssa’s hand and going to the bed at the end of the corridor. Hope looked at Lizzie noticing that she had been really quiet. She noticed that Lizzie was looking at it all: the bedroom, the kids’ happiness and Hope’s nervousness with longing. Hope knew she wanted to be part of it and Hope tried her best to make Lizzie part of it but the truth was that she simply wasn’t. It was like she had been living with them but behind a glass wall that always prevented her from really be with them. Hope just hoped that someday she would break the glass; Lizzie was the only one that could do that. Hope would only be there offering support, holding her hand just like Hope did right now leading her out of Pedro’s room and following the kids.

When Alyssa opened the door to her bedroom, she gasped. Hope’s eyes snapped at the girl. She watched closely as Alyssa took her new bedroom in: the walls were painted yellow and one of them had yellow suns that Hope had painted in a darker yellow making it match perfectly with the pastel yellow from the wall; on the wall Alyssa’s bed was closer to, Hope had scattered photographs, paintings that Hope had made and fairy lights; there were also two bookshelves with books Lizzie had spent the last weeks meticulously picking and Lizzie had already put in there her Agatha Christie’s collection that Alyssa had won on their bet. Alyssa looked around, huge eyes trying to hold back tears when she finally noticed the one picture Hope knew she would love: a picture of them with _‘1 st day of school’_ plaques that Hope had taken, an allusion to Alyssa’s crying speech when she said that Pedro needed a family that did that for him. When Alyssa looked back at Hope and tried to talk, no words came out and she just ran to Hope and hugged her tightly. Hope stood there, Alyssa wrapped on her, Pedro running across his sister’s bedroom taking things out of place and putting it back and Lizzie smiling with tears in her eyes leaning against the door and Hope felt invincible; like nothing was stronger than her, like nothing could pop their bubble.

* * *

_The girl was hiding inside the closet. She held her breath so The Woman wouldn’t hear her. The baby on the girl’s lap babbled. She looked at it and put her finger inside its mouth so it would stop making noises. Something inside the girl’s chest was beating so fast and so loud that she thought The Woman could hear it. She closed her eyes when she heard the steps coming closer. The door was pulled open._

_“I already told you not to hide from me. You’re so stupid that you always hide in the same place.” The Woman said picking up the girl by her ear. “Give me this baby.” She said taking it from her. It started to cry._

_“What are you going to do with the baby?” The girl asked scared. She thought that maybe The Woman would get rid of the baby like she had done with the other one; the one before this one._

_“I’m going to sell it. You know that.” She said and the girl shook her head, tears starting to form. She had only seen the other once so she didn’t get to know it but this one had spent a lot of time with them. She loved it. She took care of it since it was really small and just now it started to laugh._

_“Please, don’t sell it. I’ll take care of it.” She said. She knew she was too small to take care of a baby. When she watched TV, she used to see babies being taken care of by adults and the girl was only six years old. Or maybe seven. The Woman never gave the girl a cake with little candles for her to count and know how many years old she was. The Woman laughed._

_“Are you going to pay for it too? Because the people I’m selling him to will.” She said and the girl took the Woman’s hand._

_“The baby is my brother.” She said and closed her eyes waiting for The Woman to hit her. The girl knew that the Woman didn’t like when she called the baby her brother._

_“You don’t have a sibling.” She said angry. “I would sell you too if someone would buy but no one wants you. Not even your father wanted you. That was why he left and went to screw another woman to get her pregnant and left you here with me.” The girl almost didn’t remember her father. The Woman said that he left when she was three because he was an alcoholic. The girl didn’t know what that meant but maybe that was the reason the girl remembered him screaming at The Woman. And the Woman screaming at the girl every time she tried to help her. The father never spoke to the girl, that the girl remembered well. He still didn’t talk to the girl when he came to bring the baby for The Woman to sell. The Woman had screamed at him while he drunk something with an awful smell saying that the baby’s mother had died and that he wouldn’t even ask for his part of the money for the baby; that she could keep all of it if she sold it. The girl had sneaked while they were fighting and picked up the baby and it stopped crying when she put her finger inside its mouth. She smiled when she looked at its little round belly and saw a brown spot just like the one on her own belly. The Woman took the baby from her arms and pointed at the mark accusing the father of being a whore. The girl didn’t know what that meant but it was bad because he got angry. The girl picked up the baby from the couch where The Woman had put it and took it away from the fight. Since then, she had been taking care of the baby._

_“You said you wouldn’t sell it because it had the same brown spot on the belly that I have.” The girl said trying to hold the tears inside her eyes; The Woman didn’t like crying girls._

_“Yes, but it doesn’t matter anymore. He doesn’t even look like you.” She said turning around and going to the kitchen. The girl followed her. The girl knew that the baby didn’t look like her; she had light skin and straight black hair. He was a little brown with wavy hair. Their eyes were also different. The girl looked like The Woman and the baby looked like the dead bitch that the father had slept with; that was what The Woman said. But they had the same brown spot and the father had said that they were siblings before leaving the baby here and never coming back._

_“Now stop before you start to cry and go pick up the baby’s bag so we can go get our money. I’ll let you pick a chocolate in the store on the way back.” The Woman said and the girl went to do as told. She didn’t want The Woman to sell the baby but she was too small to take care of it. For the first time she was a sister and now she was going to stop being a sister._

* * *

Alyssa watched as Hope picked Pedro from the couch and took him to his bedroom. _His bedroom._ For the first time, he had a bedroom of his own with toys of his own and clothes of his own. Things a mom that loved him bought to make him happy. Alyssa also had a bedroom of her own. Hope had painted littles suns on the wall and chosen the most beautiful photos. Photos of a happy family. Alyssa’s happy family. Some of them even had Lizzie. Alyssa looked at Lizzie sleeping on the couch. She always slept halfway through the movie. She was curled up over the pillow and the scar on her back was visible. Alyssa raised her hand to it stopping just before she touched it. She knew Lizzie didn’t like being touched on any of her scars but she was never mean to Pedro when he did it. She was never mean even when she was hurting. Alyssa knew that Lizzie was hurting. She suspected that someone very bad had hurt her.

When Alyssa was about take her hand away from above Lizzie’s scar, Hope came back to the living room. Alyssa took her hand away fast, afraid that Hope would reprimand her but she didn’t. Alyssa didn’t know why she still kept waiting for Hope or Lizzie to be bad when all they did was make Alyssa happy.

“Let’s get some sleep, right?” Hope said holding Alyssa’s hand and taking her to her bedroom. When Hope sat on the bed to tuck Alyssa in like she always did, Alyssa asked the question she had been wondering since the first time she slept in Lizzie’s apartment and noticed that she woke up in the middle of the night to go check the door.

“Does Lizzie always sleep early when she’s here because she doesn’t sleep very well in her apartment?” Alyssa asked and she noticed how Hope’s eyes became so sad. Alyssa didn’t like her with sad eyes. Alyssa almost took back her question but then Hope placed her hand on Alyssa’s cheek and it felt so warm and soft that Alyssa forgot about it.

“I think so. I think she feels safer when she’s here.” Hope said tracing Alyssa’s face with her finger.

“I feel safer when I’m here too.” Alyssa whispered and Hope looked at her in a way that no one besides Pedro had looked at Alyssa before she met Hope.

“I’m glad to hear that.” She said brushing Alyssa’s hair with her fingers. Like Alyssa always imagined that a mom would do.

“Why don’t Lizzie stay here all nights if she feels better here?” Alyssa asked. “This way the bad person can’t get her again.” She said and Hope’s eyes widened.

“Did she tell you that?” Hope asked.

“No, but I know it was a bed person who hurt her.” Alyssa explained. She had met some bad people and she knew how they could hurt. Alyssa still had nightmares about _her_ sometimes. Hope sighed.

“Lizzie needs some space to figure things out on her own. We just let her be, okay?” Hope said and Alyssa nodded. When Hope kissed her and stood up, Alyssa took her hand.

“After the Adoption Hearing, are you going to be our mom forever?” Alyssa asked. She had to be sure. Hope had already explained to her. So did Rachel and Lizzie. But Alyssa had to use the word _mom_ to make Hope understand what she meant.

“I’m already your mom, sweetie, but yes, we’ll get to have a paper saying that.” Hope said smiling and Alyssa smiled too. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Alyssa whispered when Hope left the room. A mom. Alyssa had a real mom. And auntie Josie. And a cousin named Nik and another one called Ricky. And Hope’s aunts that Alyssa had met briefly when Hope was talking to them through Skype. And Lizzie.

All of it because she had a mom.

Alyssa was a daughter. A sister. A niece. A cousin. Alyssa finally had a family.

* * *

When the doorbell rang, Lizzie’s stress level peaked. Her mom had finally arrived at Hope’s house with Josie. As if on cue, three sets of eyes turned to Lizzie. Hope and Alyssa’s worried and Pedro’s excited.

“Aunt Josie’s here.” He screamed going to the door; Hope, Alyssa and Lizzie following him and opening it. And there they were. Lizzie’s mom and sister. Lizzie wanted to run to her mom like she did when she was little and had fallen on her knee and needed a band-aid and a kiss. How childhood was beautiful; everything would be solved with her mother’s kiss and a night slept hugging her sister. She didn’t move, though.

“Hello, Pedro.” Josie said picking him up and kissing his cheek and then introducing him to Caroline. And then Alyssa. Lizzie noticed that her mom’s eagle eyes, even though they were paying attention to the kids, were also trained on Lizzie.

“Hey, baby girl.” Caroline said finally walking to Lizzie and hugging her. Lizzie almost cried like a small child but she brushed it aside doing what she did best.

“I’m not going to disappear if you let go of the hug, mom.” Lizzie said when her mom had been hugging her for an awkwardly long time.

“I know. I know. I just haven’t seen you since April.” Her mom said looking Lizzie up and down. Lizzie almost waited for her to remark that Lizzie had grown an inch or two. She rolled her eyes and turned to hug her sister.

“Jo.” She hugged her tight laughing when Josie whispered in her ear that their mom had come all the way here complaining about Josie not telling her that she had gotten a new haircut.

“That’s because you didn’t hear Aunt Rebekah talking my ears off because I didn’t tell her that I planned on doing renovations in the house.” Hope rolled her eyes joining them. “As if I would make the mistake of doing that knowing that she would be here the next day to do it herself.”

“You, young people, one day you’ll be old and feel the indifference from your children and then you’ll realize.” Caroline said, a dramatic flair that Josie used to say Lizzie had gotten from her and mastered.

“Mom.” Josie and Lizzie said at the same time making everyone laugh. It had been a long time since they were all in a room together and Lizzie took the time to look at their faces. She kept watching them when they went back to the living room as if she needed to pay close attention to keep it all engraved in her mind forever. She watched as Josie opened a luggage with gifts for the children that she was supposed to wait to put under the Christmas tree but she didn’t; she watched as her mom took the children in with wonder and a little something of sadness that Lizzie supposed it came from the same place Lizzie’s sadness came: the fact that Lizzie wasn’t part of Hope’s little family as much as Hope tried to make her. She watched Hope the most. The glinting in her eyes, the happiness in her movements, the way she kept glancing sideways to see if Lizzie was next to her. When Lizzie stared so much at her that Hope probably felt it in her soul, she looked at Lizzie with a little smile and came to sit with her next to the window.

“Are you staying here tonight?” Hope asked. Lizzie shook her head.

“I’m sorry.” She looked at Hope and held her hand making sure not to let anyone see.

“That’s okay.” Hope said. Always so understanding, so willing to make Lizzie comfortable.

“It’s just that, you know how they are, they’ll want to talk and I- I-”

“It’s okay, really. I’m happy that you’re here now.” Hope said and Lizzie smiled at her letting the feel of Hope hand on hers be enough. It wasn’t. But Lizzie didn’t know how to ask for more.

“I’ll wait your family get here later today before going home so I can say hi to them.” Lizzie assured Hope, loving the amazed smile Hope gave her.

“You’re sure?” She asked and Lizzie nodded. “I’ll take you home after dinner and then I’ll pick you up tomorrow.” Hope said. After that, Pedro came running to them.

“Can auntie Josie and Caroline come to my school play too?” Pedro asked and Hope tilted her head softly.

“They can’t, sweetie. The school only gave us four tickets.” Hope said looking apologetically at Lizzie’s sister and mom.

“That’s okay, Pedro. I’ll record it so you can show them, okay?” Lizzie offered and the boy nodded, all his problems solved simply like that. After that she helped her mom to get her luggage to Hope’s ex-attic; now guest attic since Hope had turned it into a huge bedroom with some beds; where she would spend the next three days sharing with the Mikaelsons. While Jo and their mom took their things out of their bags and put it in the bed’s drawer, Lizzie waited for the usual _talk_.

“So.” Her mother started when she finished putting away her clothes. She sat on the bed in front of Lizzie. Lizzie braced herself. “How is work?” She asked.

“The same.” Lizzie said maybe purposely irritating her mom by saying too little. It’s just that Lizzie hated people beating about the bush with her. She’d rather they just went right for the throat like Alyssa and Lizzie herself did. Her mother used to be like that but she changed when Lizzie changed.

“The kids?” Her mother tried again.

“Hope’s.” Lizzie said tilting her head. She heard Josie snorting.

“Mom, she’s being insufferable like always.” Josie said and Lizzie rolled her eyes.

“Mom, did Jo tell you that she was almost kicked out of her job?” Lizzie said making Josie look at her furious. Caroline shifted her look to Josie.

“You didn’t tell me that! Why did you almost get fired?” Their mom asked.

“They didn’t like the way I solved the case.” Josie said crossing her arms and sitting next to Lizzie.

“By that she meant that she burned a whole building just to solve a case.” Lizzie said smirking at her mother’s widened eyes and the look Josie gave her.

“Lizzie made a guy point a gut at the NSA’s director.” Josie said. Their mom raised both her hands for them to stop.

“I swear to god sometimes you two look like you’re still three and fighting over who ate the cookies.” Caroline said exasperated.

“It was always Lizzie.” Josie said bumping on Lizzie’s shoulder. Lizzie hit her back and they both laughed. Their mom laughed nodding. Before they decided to get into any topic that would kill the fragile moment they just had, Lizzie stood up.

“Now I’ve gotta go to Pedro’s school thing. See you later.” She said leaving the room and going downstairs to meet Hope and the kids. Lizzie was happy, really happy. Everything was okay. Lizzie thought that her mom may have seen something different in Lizzie because for the first time her mom’s eyes focused in more than her scars; maybe Lizzie was really healing and that made the scars seem as unimportant as it always should have been.

* * *

Hope tried not to cry. Pedro was just a tree in his school’s play and he didn’t say a word but Hope was strangely emotional. Not strangely, actually. It was the first time she was watching her son’s school play, her family was coming later today and Hope had noticed that Lizzie looked particularly happy after talking to her family in the attic. Throughout the years, Hope almost convinced herself that Christmas were supposed to be terrible; her family had died three days before Christmas and then there was Lizzie… Hope shook her head and focused on Pedro’s class leaving the stage. After congratulating him and taking a few pictures, they went home. He refused to take off his tree costume saying that he wanted auntie Josie to see it so Hope let it. When they got home, Pedro showed his costume to Josie and Caroline making them smile. Hope took Pedro to the kitchen because he was hungry so she decided to take off the tree there. As soon as she helped him out of his green clothes that covered his body as if it were branches and leaves, Hope gasped.

“Who gave you this, Pedro?” Hope asked, voice trembling. She pointed at the drawings on his arms.

“He told me he was your friend.” The boy answered. “That you would like this amazing art.” Pedro said. Lizzie probably heard their voices from the living room and came to them smiling. Her smiled faded, though, when she saw the marks on the boy’s arms.

“No!” She said shaking her head. “No, no, no.” She whispered, the snow globe on her hand falling and breaking. Caroline, apparently unaware of what was happening screamed from the front door the news that only made it all worse.

“The Mikaelsons are here.” Hope had to act fast. Her brain started to scream at her but she excluded all the noise and focused on what was in front of her.

“Let’s go upstairs.” She told Lizzie, taking her hand. She took both Pedro and Lizzie upstairs before anyone could see them. When she closed her bedroom’s door, she filled her bathtub stealing glances to Lizzie that had a blank stare. She started washing the marks from the boy’s arms but she knew this image would stay forever engraved in her mind like a nightmare chasing her just like the vision of a bleeding Lizzie with these same marks still hadn’t left Hope’s mind. After cleaning up the boy and putting some clothes on him, she told him to go downstairs and tell them they would come soon. After he left, Hope locked the door and kneeled in front of Lizzie that was sitting on the bed, the blank gaze scaring Hope more than words could ever tell.

“Lizzie.” Hope tried but Lizzie’s stare didn’t even waver. “Lizzie, please, talk to me.” Hope tried again and her whole body reacted to the tears starting to pool in Lizzie’s eyes. “Lizzie.” Hope said and Lizzie finally looked at her when Hope took her hands.

“He’s back, Hope.” Lizzie whispered. Hope didn’t know what to say so she watched as Lizzie shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “He can’t be back. Not now. Not ever.”

“We’re going to get him this time, Lizzie.” Hope said but her words sounded weak, lacking of conviction; of hope. Lizzie closed her eyes.

“No, we won’t. We didn’t the first time. He’s just playing with us. Five years, Hope. I tried to convince myself every day and night that passed that it was over but it isn’t. It never will. Did you notice?” Lizzie asked and Hope realized that she was trembling. “He drew my scars on Pedro’s arms. Just like mine. The same places, sizes and shapes. I don’t want to play this game, Hope.” Lizzie said sobbing. Hope sat next to her on the bed and hugged her.

“We won’t, Lizzie, we-”

“He touched Pedro, Hope. He was so close. He could’ve taken him.” Lizzie whispered frightened and Hope felt the dread take over her own body.

“Pedro’s okay, Lizzie.” Hope whispered back, trying to reassure whom, Hope had no idea.

“I can’t do this again.” Lizzie said Hope nodded.

“I promise that we’re going to get this son of a bitch.” Hope said before standing up. She needed to go greet everybody before they noticed that something was wrong. “I have to call my boss. Let them know he's back. Get people to watch the house.” Hope said more to herself than to Lizzie; Lizzie was still crying. “I’ll get downstairs and say that you had a call from work and that you’re on a virtual meeting. I’ll tell Josie to come.” Hope said and Lizzie’s eyes snapped at her.

“Please don’t. Not Josie.” Lizzie pleaded and Hope really wanted to do everything that she could to avoid pain but this time she couldn’t hide things from Josie and Caroline.

“You have to talk to her. She needs to know.” Hope said coming closer to Lizzie and holding her head. “She deserves the truth, Lizzie.” She said kissing Lizzie’s forehead. “Tell her.” She whispered turning around and leaving the room without looking at Lizzie once more afraid that doing that would break Hope. When she met her family, she plastered a huge smile on her face and greeted everyone.

“Where’s Lizzie?” Freya asked and Hope smiled softly trying to ignore Freya’s look that recalled their previous conversations.

“There’s this patient of hers that is going to court alleging insanity and she just got a call from the prosecution asking about that.” Hope said and Freya frowned, but not suspiciously to Hope’s relief.

“She got a call at night, two nights away from Christmas?” Freya asked and Hope nodded. After hugging everyone and seeing that they didn’t suspect anything, Hope pulled Josie apart.

“He’s back, Josie.” Hope said and Josie tilted her head in confusion.

“Who’s back?”

“Him.” Hope said nodding when Josie’s eyes turned worried. “Go talk to her. Don’t tell anyone else. I’ll get people to watch the house and get the FBI to get the footage of Pedro’s school to see if we got him on cameras.” Hope said and Josie’s eyes widened.

“Pedro’s school?”

“He drew scars on Pedro’s arms that match Lizzie’s.” Hope explained and Josie gasped in horror. Then she nodded and went upstairs. As Hope watched her leaving, the only thought in her mind was that it was just like this that her nightmares started: lizzie hurting followed by everyone around her suffering too.

* * *

Lizzie couldn’t believe that it was happening again. Her mind was spinning so fast that Lizzie barely could breath. She thought about the last time. The worst part wasn’t the pain of the scars or the fact that she had to put up with people treating her differently after that; no, the worst part was the constant fear that it would happen again. That kept Lizzie from moving on because there was a voice In the back of her head telling her that as soon as she started to be happy again, to let people in, he would be back and destroy it all.

Lizzie didn’t hear when her sister entered the room. Her mind was too loud, keeping out all noises from outside. She only noticed her sister when she hugged Lizzie.

“Hope told me, Lizzie. I’m so sorry.” Josie said and Lizzie started to cry again. It had been years since she had cried in front of Josie but now that she finally let herself do it, she did it just like when they were teens. She threw herself on her sister trusting that she would pick Lizzie up and take care of her.

“I need to tell you the whole story.” Lizzie whispered after some time. Hope was right, Josie deserved to know. Josie sat on Hope’s bed next to Lizzie and waited. “It started five years ago when Hope gave me the files of a case she was working on. Remember that Christmas, right?” Lizzie asked but she knew her sister did.

“Yes, mom and I would come to town to stay with you on Christmas but you and Hope had to travel for work and cancel the plans.” Josie said frowning.

“That’s not what happened.” Lizzie said finally stopping crying. She took a deep breath. “Hope told you that because I had been kidnapped.” Lizzie whispered watching her sister’s face go from worry to sheer dread.

“That can’t be right.” Josie said shaking her head. “If that’s true, then-”

“Yes.” Lizzie confirmed and then it was her sister’s time to cry. She watched as her sister’s face shifted from worry to horror in a second.

“Oh, Lizzie. What happened to you?”

* * *

_“Got home.” Hope said closing the door and going to the living room where the light was on. She found Lizzie there, paper sheets scattered around her on the floor, a pen holding a loose bun together on her head and a glass of wine in her hand. When she noticed Hope staring, she smiled._

_“You took so long that I already ordered food and ate twice.” Lizzie said finishing her wine and putting the glass away. She stood up and came to Hope, stopping to kiss her before going to the kitchen. “Go shower. I’ll go warm the food I ordered and then we can talk.” Lizzie said giving Hope a pointed look that showed Hope that Lizzie wanted to talk about the case. Hope sighed and did what Lizzie told her to. After finishing eating, they went back to the living room. Lizzie looked at Hope waiting for her to talk. Hope did, after all since she started working on this case, she had been wanting to talk about it with Lizzie._

_“It’s just so overwhelming.” Hope started and Lizzie nodded. “He doesn’t just kill people and move on to kill other people. His M.O. is to kill the whole family. He likes to see the chaos, the sadness and the heartbreak he leaves behind.” Hope explained, sadness taking over her for the victims. This serial killer was nothing like the ones she would see in TV shows with Lizzie or even like the ones that became famous across history; no, this one was different and Hope hated that that made him so difficult to get._

_The truth was that they knew nothing about him besides that he was a man because he told them. The first time he killed, at least what the FBI thinks is the first time, was eleven years ago. He starts by picking a family; a happy one. Then he kills the first person and watches as the family suffers. One of the profilers that the FBI had on the case said that he probably watched the funeral too but they never caught him so they can’t be sure. Then he waits and watches the family trying to pick up themselves and move on. When they’re finally healing from the loss, he picks another one and kills again bringing the whole family down again. He takes his time; waits as long as it takes for the family to start recovering and then attacks again. When he finally kills the last person, he leaves a diary with an entrance for everything he did to make the family suffer and how he enjoyed it. It’s only then that the FBI realizes it had been him. And that’s exactly why they never caught him: deaths and accidents happens in families all the time so it’s impossible to tell if it’s him until he gets his way with the family and decides to announce for everyone. Hope hated it. She hated it more when the families had children; she could still remember with details the pictures of it that he put in the diary. He had wrecked six families. The FBI had never been able to save one of them._

_“It’s so messed up.” Hope said relieving in the comforting feeling of Lizzie’s hand caressing Hope’s back as she opened up._

_“It is. I’m so sorry that you’re on this case.” Lizzie said taking Hope’s hand and kissing in that loving way that always managed to take the world from Hope’s shoulder._

_“Me too.” Hope said. Just a few weeks ago, they had gotten a new diary. Since then they had been trying to get him while the trail was still fresh, but Hope knew they wouldn’t. He had just finished a family so now he would start to look up for another one, study its members, its weakness and fears and the FBI would only know when he finished again and left another diary to add to their collection of failures. And now that Hope had been added to the case by her captain, she would have to work on it when it happened again and she knew she would hate it. That was why she decided to let Lizzie in, Lizzie could see something that no one else had seen; something that would help them catch him. Hope looked around at the files that she had emailed Lizzie and Lizzie had printed to work on, then she looked back at Lizzie. “Let’s put all of this away and watch something nice, shall we? After all, your behavior test is literally next week so is your polygraph and I would hate for you to fail it if you lied saying that you’ve been working on what you shouldn’t.” Hope said and Lizzie rolled her eyes._

_“Even if I fail the polygraph, and I won’t because I can trick it,” Lizzie said winking “they will accept me anyway because I helped them with The Sharp Wire killer four months ago.” Lizzie said and Hope had to agree. But she didn’t really feel like talking about any of this so she just picked up everything, put inside one of the empty archive boxes that Hope had and put on something nice for them to watch. Hope had been naïve, not even Lizzie could get this one._

_The next day when Hope went to work, she had left Lizzie with a promise that she wouldn’t get home late tonight. Lizzie had thanked and said that she would spend her day reading the files that Hope had sent her again and Hope had nodded begrudgingly, knowing that Lizzie wouldn’t let it go. When was about the time Hope had to get home, though, Hope was called by Internal Affairs to talk about one of the guys that worked two desks from Hope’s desk and had been covering a lot of crimes. Hope tried to tell them that she didn’t really know him and all but they wanted to talk and Hope couldn’t say no so she went to the office to talk to the agent responsible for the investigation forgetting to text Lizzie saying that she would be late._

_After two hours of talking and the Internal Affairs trying to decide if Hope wasn’t dirt too; that always happened when a dirty agent was found, Hope’s captain had said when he noticed that Hope was nervous, Hope finally left the office, noticing that she had ten lost calls from Lizzie. Hope frowned and called Lizzie back on the way home but Lizzie didn’t pick up. Hope thought that Lizzie had found something about him; about the killer; so Hope went home fast, her heart beating hopeful that it would be something that would finally help them and get him. When Hope got home, though, Lizzie wasn’t there. Hope frowned and went to look inside the box she had put all the papers yesterday but it was gone. Hope tried to call Lizzie again but it went to voicemail. Hope felt a cold chill down her spine. She left the house and drove to Lizzie’s apartment. Lizzie never really stayed there, sleeping almost all nights at Hope’s house, except for when hers or Hope’s family was visiting or they had had a fight about something stupid that it would be solved the very next day. But Lizzie wasn’t there either. It hadn’t been for a while judging by how the dusty it was. Hope started to worry then. Lizzie couldn’t have gone after the killer by herself even if she had found something; that wasn’t Lizzie. Hope decided to go back home, there was no reason to assume Lizzie had gone after him or after something at all. She could have gone to the grocery store and her phone had died._

_There was no reason to be worried, Hope tried to tell herself as she called Maya from the Computer Lab. Hope had only talked to her a few times but she had been very nice and, honestly, Hope didn’t know what else to do. As soon as Maya picked up, Hope burst out._

_“I need a favor, Maya.” Hope asked. She wasn’t even close to her and she knew that Maya could just say no._

_“Hello, agent Mikaelson. Good evening.” Maya said in that sarcastic but sweet way that Hope had found endearing when she first met her. “What do you need?”_

_“I need you to track my girlfriend’s phone and see where she is.” Hope decided to be honest and direct. Maya must have noticed the worry in Hope’s voice because her voice was serious when she answered._

_“Why do you need that, Hope?”_

_“I have a bad feeling. I gave her some files from a case I’m working on and now I’m home and she isn’t and she tried to call me but I was in a meeting and didn’t pick up and now my calls are going to voicemail.” Hope explained. She heard Maya sigh._

_“You’re luck that I’m still at work because if I had to do this at home, it would take some time. Give me her number.” Maya asked and Hope told her, worry increasing as she waited for Maya’s computer to find the location. “Remember that if her phone is dead or she has no signal, my program will only tell me the last place she had gone before the phone stopped working.” Maya explained._

_“It’s okay.” Hope said._

_“Here. I’ll text you the location.” Maya said and Hope gasped relieved._

_“Thank you, Maya.” Hope said._

_“I’ll track your phone in case something happens.” Maya said just before Hope hang up. Hope drove so fast it was reckless. When she got there, trembling and out of breath, she felt the like her world was crumbling when she found Lizzie’s cellphone on the driver’s seat of the abandoned car. Hope looked around but the parking lot was empty. She took Lizzie’s phone and entered the storage building looking for someone._

_“Do you need something?” A man asked when Hope knocked on the door that said break room._

_“I need-” Hope started but then recomposed herself, taking her badge and showing the man. “I’m agent Mikaelson from the FBI, can you tell me if a blonde woman came her earlier?” Hope asked and the man nodded._

_“Yes, there was a blonde woman here. She rented a storage room. But she already left.” The guy said not knowing the effects of those words on Hope._

_“I’ll need to see the cameras from the outside of this building.” Hope said and the guy shook his head._

_“I’m sorry, but only with a warrant. I know the laws.” He said and Hope turned around. She called her captain because he was the major investigator of this case and told him words that freezed Hope’s blood._

_“Captain, it’s Hope. Lizzie was kidnapped by him. By The Writer.”_

* * *

After Josie left to talk to Lizzie, Hope went outside to breath and call her boss again with bad news. “He’s back.” Hope said as soon as he answered the call. Hope didn’t have to explain.

“Are you home? Is your doc okay?” He asked.

“She’s home with me.” Hope said holding back tears.

“I’ll send people to watch the house and get people on the case. What did he do this time?” He asked.

“He drew scars on my son’s arms. The same scars from Lizzie’s arms.” Hope hissed, anger replacing the sadness and the fear.

“Is Pedro okay?”

“Yes, he didn’t hurt him but just the fact that he managed to get inside his school and do that with so many people around… he’s bold.”

“I’ll send people. You should come here. We have no idea of what he’s going to do. After what he did with her five years ago, we hadn't heard hear from him since. What he’s doing… he changed his modus operandi. That’s how we’re going to get him this time, Mikaelson.”

“I can’t come. My family and Lizzie’s are at my house. I don’t want them to know. It could make it worse.” Hope said. “That’s why you have to send people to watch the house without getting attention. I won’t leave Lizzie’s side, nor my kids’ or my family’s.”

“That’s okay. I’ll send you everything we get about it, but Hope…”

“Yes?”

“Talk to her. It’s been five years. I always suspected that she was hiding something. Make her talk.” He said ending the call and Hope tried not to feel angry at him. It wasn’t news that he didn’t like Lizzie but he could at least pretend to care about what she had been through. Hope knew Lizzie was hiding something, of course, but if Lizzie didn’t want to tell, there was nothing Hope could have done to make her talk. There was one thing, though, Hope knew. Something that would hurt both Hope and Lizzie but it would finally make Lizzie talk. Hope breathed deeply before entering the house. She went back to her bedroom and the scene that she found there made her determination to get Lizzie to talk almost die out: Josie crying on Lizzie’s arm; Lizzie’s eyes staring ahead blankly.

“Josie, can you go downstairs and occupy them? Tell them we have, I don’t know, a video call from work or something. I don’t really care, just don’t let them leave the house. Don’t tell them what’s happening.” Hope said and Josie nodded leaving the bedroom after kissing her sister’s head. When they were alone, Hope looked at Lizzie. “You’re hiding something.” She said and watched as Lizzie didn’t even flinch.

“I am.” She said and Hope sat next to her on the bed.

“Lizzie, just tell me, please. I gave you time, space and I would continue to give you whatever you wanted but Lizzie, look at me.” Hope said taking Lizzie’s face and ignoring the grimace on Lizzie’s face when Hope touched her. “I need to know it all.” She said and Lizzie shook her head standing up and walking away from Hope.

“It won’t help in catching him.” Lizzie said coldly. Hope hated when she did that. That anger Hope was feeling towards the man that caused all this for the first time met Hope’s frustration with Lizzie for not telling her everything. Hope tried to stay calm; she wanted to give Lizzie the opportunity to talk before doing the thing that she knew would break Lizzie’s heart. But then Lizzie did what she always did best, she locked herself and used sharp words to get people away. “Why do you wanna know? Don’t you trust me? Why do you always want more?” Lizzie said and if it were just yesterday, Hope would’ve just nodded and told Lizzie that it’s okay, she could wait. But not now when Pedro had been brought to the equation, not now when Hope had finally started to get Lizzie back. No.

“Because I deserve to know, Lizzie.” Hope shouted and Lizzie’s eyes widened a little when Hope screamed at her. Some part of Hope knew that the rest of the house could be listening but this was the only way she would get Lizzie to talk. She had to break Lizzie. “Because when you were kidnapped five years ago, my world crumbled. I felt guilty like I had never felt before. I cried and I screamed and I couldn’t tell my family or yours because that was the serial killer’s play. He wanted people suffering so the FBI thought that if we didn’t give him that, he would probably take more time to kill you and that would give us time to find you. And so I waited and searched for you and I hurt myself and I did bad things trying to get you back and as the days passed, my mind started to lose hope; it started to wish you were dead because weeks had passed and if you finally showed up alive, you wouldn’t be the same and that broke me.” Hope screamed, tears streaming down her face and blurring her vision. Good; she didn’t have the strength needed to watch Lizzie breaking in front of Hope without a layer of tears to protect her. Hope stepped towards Lizzie but she stopped when Lizzie stepped away from Hope. That would always torment Hope’s dream from now on. “I deserve to know because I was there when I got you back, bleeding and so much more hurt that I could ever have imagined someone could be. Because seeing you like that hurt me like I can never explain. Because you didn’t talk to me.” Hope said slowly walking towards Lizzie that now had reached the wall. “You didn’t talk to me for a whole year. You hurt me, did you know that?” Hope said noticing how Lizzie started to sob and her body became too weak and she sank to the ground crying. But Hope wasn’t finished. “You didn’t talk to me and I had to learn what happened to you by the reports that you wrote from the hospital. You got a Restraining Order to keep me from visiting you on that Mental Institution that you got yourself into and I had to suffer in silence because I couldn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone but you, Lizzie.” Hope said finally sinking to the ground next to Lizzie. “Anyone but you.” She whispered. “I can’t let it happen again. He toughed Pedro, Lizzie. He was so close to my- to our boy that he could have done whatever he wanted to him. But he didn’t because he is playing with us; he knows that we know that he could have done anything with Pedro. We can’t let him win. Not this time.” Hope whispered resting her forehead on Lizzie’s.

“He showed me you.” Lizzie whispered silently. “When I was there with him, he showed me you while you he hurt me. At first, just in the begging, the fact that he had let me keep the picture of you that he found on my wallet made me have hope that I would be back for you but then he started to send me pictures that he took from you while you were driving or at your house or at work. That scared me so much because by then, I had already understood that the pictures were part of his game to break me.” Lizzie said, voice hoarse as if she had been the one screaming instead of Hope. “I don’t remember what happened, that part is true. I don’t remember much from after that. I spent most days drugged. In the few moments that I would be awake and conscious, I would see some new scar on my arms and legs. I don’t know how they got there but I do remember screaming and the pain.” Lizzie said shaking her head weakly. “And every time I woke up, my body aching and bleeding, I remembered you and there was pictures of you everywhere that I knew that he put there just to torment me; first with the fear of losing you and then with pain because I started to associate my pain with you and every time he hurt me, you were there.” Lizzie said and Hope just stared at Lizzie; too powerless to do anything. “There is one scar I do remember how I got.” Lizzie said, her hand instantly going to the scar on her neck. “The day he let me go.” Lizzie said and Hope also remembered this day. She had gotten a letter telling her where Lizzie was. She was supposed to go alone and Hope did because it had been one month without Lizzie and it had been hell and if Hope didn’t find Lizzie she wasn’t really caring about what would happen next. But she did find Lizzie in an empty park, a knife on her hand. Hope screamed her name and as soon as Lizzie heard her name, Hope watched in horror as Lizzie brough the knife to her own neck. Hope would ever be thankful that she was already close to Lizzie and she had been able to stop what was about to happen. Hope tried to take the knife from Lizzie that screamed that _she had to do it, she had to do it_ and Hope didn’t remember much of the fight, a haze of relief and fear still over her, but she was finally able to take the knife from Lizzie. Then Hope realized that when she had jumped on Lizzie to take the knife from her, she had knocked down Lizzie over a rock. “I didn’t want to die, Hope.” Lizzie whispered as it were a sin that she had wished that. “He told me to do that as soon as I saw you but- but I couldn’t.” Lizzie started to sob again. “That’s why he’s back. He wants to finish it. He wants to kill me, Hope. And then you and everyone we love.” Lizzie said shaking violently inside Hope’s arms. “Everyone we love.”

* * *

_“Why would you tell her that, Mikaelson? That’s your fault.” Her captain screamed at her. “You know you can’t give files from investigations. They're kept a secret for a reason.”_

_“I know.” Hope said, a fog in her mind that prevented her from thinking straight. It was like she was miles away from here; as if she were underwater trying to make sense of the words that were being told to her._

_“Tell me everything that happened.” He said and Hope told him that she had given Lizzie all the files of the case, the diaries of the killer; everything. She told him that Lizzie had called Hope but Hope hadn’t seen the calls because she was at a meeting with IA. She told him that when she got home and Lizzie wasn’t there, she asked Maya to track her and had found her car in front of the storage building. Hope told him that Lizzie had told the man that she wanted to rent a storage room but she probably only said that to get in and investigate something. They got the camera footage but unsurprisingly, they all had stopped working 11 minutes before Lizzie got there and had started working again 11 minutes after the guy had said that she left. He knew Lizzie was going there. After that happened, Maya had found out that Lizzie had called someone just before leaving home. But that was the only clue that Lizzie had found something that they hadn't._ _“This isn’t his modus operandi, Mikaelson. Why would he kidnap her?” Her captain asked._

_“She found something.” Hope asked. That was why Hope had told Lizzie all about it to begin with; she knew Lizzie was clever enough to notice something they hadn’t._

_“Then why don’t just kill her?” He asked and Hope’s eyes snapped at him angry. “Don’t look at me like that. If anything, this is all your fault. I should fire you right now. Get your badge and send you home.” He said._

_“You can’t do this.”_

_“Yes, I can. I just won’t do this because the way you are right now… I know you’re going to do something stupid.” He said and Hope noticed that he was just as angry as Hope was._

_“I have to tell her family.” Hope said. It had already been 12 hours since Lizzie was missing._

_“No, you won’t. Our profilers said that that’s exactly what he wants. If he kidnapped her and he’s going to do with her just like he did with the other victims, he wants to see the suffering that he left behind. This is the first time we know that he’s in action before he's already finished. We have to change the game. If we don’t tell her family, he may let her live long enough for us to get her back.” He said. Then he sent Hope home. Hope called both her family and Lizzie’s and told them that they would have to do some undercover work for the next weeks and that they shouldn’t be worried if they didn’t call. She had to guarantee Caroline that Lizzie herself wasn’t calling because she was already undercover and couldn’t talk. Josie was more complicated to convince because she knew that Lizzie and Hope had left the CIA exactly because they hated the lying that undercover work caused. But she managed to deceive them; they didn’t think Hope would lie so they believed._

_Then Hope waited. She read all the files again, she went everyday to work and concentrated only on getting Lizzie back. She didn’t sleep, didn’t eat, didn’t do anything else besides read and re-do Lizzie’s steps trying and begging to find something. As the weeks passed, Hope barely acknowledged the hours passing. Then Hope got a letter telling her that she would find Lizzie if she went alone. And she found Lizzie; easy like that. Hope tried to fool herself but she knew that it wasn’t over. She knew it wasn’t over as Lizzie cried all the way to the hospital. She knew it wasn’t over after that when Lizzie didn’t want to see her. She didn't think she was ever going to believe it was over._

* * *

Josie tried to convince everyone that everything was fine but Hope screaming upstairs didn’t help. They all started to ask questions and Josie was too perplexed by what Lizzie had just told her to give them some poor excuse that they wouldn’t believe so she asked Nik, Hope’s oldest cousin, to stay with the children in the living room while Josie talked to the adults in the kitchen. Part of her knew that her sister would hate to know that she had told them, but Josie just needed them to know; needed to tell someone and be free of the crushing weight of the secret Lizzie and Hope had kept for years.

“Five years ago, someone kidnapped Lizzie.” Josie said and she focused on her mom that frowned.

“We know that, Josie. Why are you saying that? Lizzie doesn’t like to talk about it.” Caroline said.

“But she’s been lying. You see, Hope told us that they had been working undercover, but she wasn’t. She had been kidnapped since the beginning. They lied to us.” Josie said angry. She was angry at Hope for not telling them since the beginning but she was also angry at herself for not figuring out.

“If that’s true, Lizzie…” Hope’s aunt, Freya, started but stopped when she realized the implication.

“One month kidnapped.” Josie confirmed watching her mom start to cry. “He kept her one month. And now he’s back.” Josie said. She had to stop her mom for running upstairs to Lizzie. Josie knew Lizzie and Hope had to talk. Josie wasn’t naïve enough to believe that Lizzie had told her everything or that she would ever do. They all had thought that Lizzie’s scars had come from being tortured a few days when she got discovered during their work undercover. And while torture wasn’t something good at all, after Lizzie explaining the real reason, Josie wished she were telling the truth before; Josie almost wished Lizzie hadn’t told her at all. Her sister. They used to sleep together on the same bed when they were young. Her best friend; the person Josie loved the most in the whole world. Josie felt as if the pain was in herself after she told them all. After that Josie avoided Alyssa because Lizzie had told Josie a few times that Alyssa didn’t hold back from asking something and Josie wouldn’t be able to explain to a child why they all had listened to Hope screaming from the bedroom. No, Josie only sat close to one of the windows and tried to spot cops that she knew Hope would have called to guard the house. Josie had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

* * *

Lizzie finally had finally told Hope the reason why she recoiled at her touch; the reason she avoided her so much. He fear that because she didn’t do what she was supposed to, the Writer would be back to torment them. Lizzie also had a lot of other reasons for avoiding Hope after she was finally free of _him_ , but she was too tired, too drained to put into words the fear that she felt every time Hope was next to her; fear of the pain and fear of Hope being taken because that’s what she remembered the most about the time she spent kidnapped: the constant fear of something happening to Hope. Hope seemed to understand, though, because she always understood Lizzie with one look.

“He won’t get you this time, Lizzie.” Hope said, her tone so intense that Lizzie almost believed the promise of her words. But being taken again wasn’t what was causing Lizzie’s whole mind and body to act in fear. No, Lizzie’s worst fear was that Hope would be taken this time. Or Lizzie’s family. Or even the kids. Lizzie knew his M.O., and even if he had changed it five years ago when he kept Lizzie for one month and then gave her back, Lizzie knew that he wasn’t finished. With some of the families that he had killed, he had taken years between killing one member and the other. He didn’t mind waiting if he knew the pain would be greater. And in his sixteen years of killing, he hadn’t left anything behind that got the police any close to his identity. Except that five years ago, Lizzie had discovered something important enough that had made him kidnap her. But Lizzie didn’t remember what. He therapist had told her that forgetting was normal in cases of trauma; not that Lizzie had needed her to tell that being a psychologist herself. Lizzie knew it was normal but she hated that it had happened with her of all people. Lizzie could remember things that no one else did and the fact that she didn’t even remember if the scars on her pulse were made by _him_ to hurt her of by herself in a failed attempt to end her life and get over with the pain she had been going through troubled Lizzie more than she could explain. Sometimes, that was what she thought the most about: if she had been pushed so far that she tried to kill herself. Lizzie hated to think so, after all, when he let her go telling her that he would be back if she didn’t kill herself in front of Hope, Lizzie didn’t really triy to kill herself. Yes, she put the knife to her neck but she didn’t want to. She just wanted to live and Hope to hug her and love her and take care of her like she knew Hope would. Her surprise couldn’t be greater when her body rejected Hope’s touch and care as much as her mind and heart craved for it. Lizzie found out soon enough that she couldn’t be in the same room as Hope without pain washing all over her body and terrible images of herself back at the place she had been kept replaying like a broken record in her mind.

“You heard me?” Hope said and Lizzie nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. Hope stood up then and helped Lizzie up leading them to the bed. Lizzie noticed that Hope was doing her best to avoid touching Lizzie too much, probably as wrecked from hearing the story as Lizzie was from telling. When Hope sat in front of Lizzie on bed, Lizzie took her hand.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. She wasn’t apologizing because she couldn’t bare Hope touching her; but rather because she was the reason all of it was coming back again and even if the rational part of Lizzie recognized that none of this was her fault, some part of her tried to tell her it was. Hope nodded caressing Lizzie’s hand. Lizzie closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of Hope’s touch causing both pain and relief. Now the pain that Lizzie felt wasn’t physical anymore but emotional; the pain of knowing how many things they lost. She kept her eyes closed as Hope’s hands trailed a path up Lizzie’s arms causing Lizzie to tremble. When Hope took away her hand, Lizzie put it back. It didn’t matter that it hurt because right now the only thing Lizzie wanted, needed, to feel was Hope next to her touching her, taking care of her like Lizzie always knew she would. So Hope kept her tracing of Lizzie’s scars. She touched every single visible one. Then she started to kiss each one of them with such tenderness and love and devotion that Lizzie felt like her world wouldn’t end in pain and blood and suffering but in love and gentle touches and kisses placed on Lizzie’s weakest spot; kisses placed to disarm Lizzie. To bring down all the defenses Lizzie thought that she still had. But while Hope kissed her arms and then her shoulder and neck, Lizzie realized that she never had any against Hope; not really. Because even though she had avoided Hope to protect her from the pain of seeing Lizzie like that, in the end Lizzie was always meant to melt again in Hope’s arms. So she did just that, she kept her eyes closed and let Hope kiss every single one of her scars as if she were closing them with the sheer power of love. Lizzie knew that after that things could get better or even worse but for now she enjoyed the feeling of finally letting herself be undeniably Hope’s .

* * *

Hope watched as Lizzie slept with love beyond measure; love so strong that made Hope both the stronger person in the world and the weakest. After giving Lizzie one last kiss, Hope left the room and went downstairs to talk to her family and put the kids to sleep. She had to explain to Pedro why she was screaming but he was a child and every apology worked as long as Hope kissed him goodnight like she did. Alyssa was more difficult, she knew something was wrong but she didn’t ask this time like she usually did. Hope guessed that the girl saw in Hope’s face that Hope and Lizzie would explain later, after the others were gone and there were just the four of them again. 

Then there was the family. Josie had told them about Hope’s lie. Hope wished they had been angry at her for keeping this secret for so long but they weren’t and the love they showed Hope when she finally explained everything from her side was almost too much for Hope to handle. She cried when she went back to her bedroom.

Hope didn’t sleep that night. She knew there were at least ten people watching the house but the fear was too much. Hope’s captain had already asked a warrant for the cameras in Pedro’s school but Hope knew that it would be in vain. He was smart and had been able to get rid with everything for sixteen years. After these five years of him not killing anyone and leaving diaries, Hope dared to think that it was over even as her bones felt like it didn’t. Hope paced around the silent house like a ghost. She went to Alyssa’s bed and watched the girl sleeping. Then she watched Pedro. When half of the night was already gone, she went back to her bedroom and laid on bed next to Lizzie. No nightmares, Hope noticed. Lizzie never had nightmares when she was sleeping with Hope as if just proximity caused her subconscious to calm down. Hope thought about how these last years had been difficult on both of them. Lizzie pushing her away so much that sometimes Hope felt tempted to really leave her alone.

When Hope noticed, it was already morning of the 24th. Christmas eve. A time that was supposed to be joyful. Hope sighed before going to the bathroom and taking a bath. After she was ready, she woke up Lizzie. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Lizzie said and Hope noticed the moment Lizzie remembered that everything was messy again. Then she looked away. “We have to go to the bureau.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded. “We’re taking the kids with us. I won’t let them here. They can stay in my office. There’s games, tv, books and toys for them while we work on this.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded again.

“Yes, we’re taking them.” Hope said. While Lizzie went to take a bath, Hope woke up Pedro and Alyssa. Then she went to the attic to talk to Josie. Josie was already up. “I’m taking the kids to the bureau. They’ll be safer there. I’ll take Ricky and Nik too.” Hope said knowing that it was the best thing to do and that her family would agree. After waking up everyone, they went down to eat something before leaving.

“It’s Christmas Eve, mom. Why won’t we be here waiting for Santa Claus?” Ricky asked, pouting face and ready to fight. Just like her mom, Rebekah. Ricky had been named after the Mikaelson’s younger brother that had died when he was still a child, Henrik. Henrika, Ricky for short, was a mini Rebekah that could wrap everyone around her little finger. A total opposite of Nik, Freya and Keelin’s son. He was sweet and quiet and loved to read. He kneeled next to her and whispered something in her ear. “Santa Claus told you that?” Ricky asked suspiciously but when Nik nodded seriously, Ricky turned back to her mom. “I’ll go.” She said like a little queen as if it were a choice at all. She made Hope laugh a little. She missed her family; this should be a happy morning.

When Lizzie finally met everyone in the kitchen, Hope prayed for Caroline not to cry or Freya not to say something. She prayed that they just ignored her like Hope was sure Lizzie wanted them to. But Hope should have expected when Lizzie just entered the kitchen and rolled her eyes.

“I should know that Josie wouldn’t keep her tongue inside her mouth.” Lizzie said casually and Hope could almost feel all the tension disappearing. “She always told mum I was the one eating the cookies when we were little.” She said and even thought it was strained, they laughed. Hope noticed that Caroline was exerting all her power to hold herself from going and hugging her girl. After they left they house, Hope drove herself and the kids to the bureau. When she left them in Lizzie’s office, she watched as Lizzie called the psychologist that worked in the office in front of hers.

“You watch the kids. No one get in. Cancel all the appointments for today. Don’t let people get on this floor. I’ll lock the elevator for this floor and put people to guard the stairs. I know you’re one of the bodyguards they put along with my secretary to make sure I wasn’t going nuts or putting myself in dangerous situations. By the way, you lie very badly.” Lizzie said making the guy embarrassed. It wasn’t a surprise that so many people hated Lizzie.

“How did you find out?” He asked.

“It’s practically written on your face. Now did you listen to me? The kids will be here in my office. If anything happens, my secretary will take them away.” Lizzie said and he nodded. When they went to Hope’s office, Lizzie looked at Hope. “Your family should be here too instead of just the children.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded.

“They’ll come. They'll pick up the kids’ presents for Christmas and they’ll come later today.” Hope reassured her.

“What do we do now, Hope?” Lizzie asked. Hope hated to do that, but she picked up a box that she had asked her captain to leave in her office for when she came with Lizzie. When Lizzie opened, Hope saw her gulping.

“You want me to read the diaries again.” Lizzie said and Hope nodded.

“Yes, Lizzie. You saw something here that we didn’t and that made him take you. You need to remember. What caught your attention? From where did you get that number that you called on the night you were kidnapped? We have been looking for years and no one figured out how you did that.” Hope said. She kissed Lizzie’s head before closing the door and leaving Lizzie alone. She knew Lizzie needed some time. When she left the room, Maya was waiting.

“How is she?”

“She’ll be fine. Did you find something on the cameras of Pedro’s school?”

“No. Everything erased.” As hope expected. “Captain wants to talk to you. I’ll be doing my part in the computers, Hope. We’ll get him this time.” Maya said. Hope went to her captain and listened to him informing everything new since last night, which was nothing.

“Did you talk to her?” He asked.

“Yes. She doesn’t remember anything that could help. She’s reading the diaries now.” She informed him.

“I don’t like her, you know.” He said when Hope became quiet. Hope snorted bitterly.

“You already made it clear on several occasions.” Hope said.

“The reason is that-”

“I don’t wanna know.” Hope said angry. She didn’t need to hear someone listing all the reasons they didn’t like Lizzie; they would be here for a very long time because Lizzie didn’t put an effort to make people like her. On the contraire, she used to be especially nasty so people would hate her. But Hope didn’t want to discuss that now, she didn’t care if the whole world couldn’t care less about Lizzie. “I just wanna get him. And when I do…” Hope said, anger filling her.

“When you do, you’re going to arrest him.” Her captain said. “That’s your problem, Hope. You don’t think when it comes to her. That was why you gave her the files all these years ago and why I had to watch you doing shit every time she ignored you.” He said shaking his head. “Go get yourself something to do.” He said leaving Hope there without knowing what to do.

When Hope decided to go back to her office and read the diaries with Lizzie, the captain walked to her with a package in his hand. “This just came from him.” He said pointing at the note that hang from the beautiful box. Hope gasped. She opened it to find a journal. On the cover written

**_Lizzie’s Diary_ **

Hope didn’t even feel like herself when she picked up the diary and threw the box away. Logically, she expected that nothing good would come when she opened it, but it was worse than she imagined. There were pictures and descriptions just like on the other diaries. Hope could barely read it. But the worst part was when she got to the half of it and found blank pages. The last sentence written by him was:

**_Blank pages to fill with what I’ll still do with her_ **

Her captain took the dairy from her and gave to one of the computer lab guys for them to scan it and put it a program that was used to find relations between the diaries. Not that it ever worked. He was always a step ahead of them. It was almost as if he was standing right next to them. Playing a game that Hope didn’t know the rules. Now Hope had to show Lizzie this and bring her more pain. Hope was so tired. She was on the verge of screaming or crying or doing something stupid. After they had scanned ever page of the diary, Hope went to talk to Lizzie. When she opened the door, Lizzie looked at her wide-eyed.

“I know what I found in the first time.”

* * *

_Lizzie was tired. She had been reading the writings of this maniac for hours and she hadn’t found anything. She had started to form a profile but it wasn’t anything different from the ones she read from other psychologists that had worked on this case. The Writer was very meticulous. The FBI never knew he had killed until she sent them the diary telling exactly how he did it all. The diary showed sadistic qualities; he liked to see people in pain and taking pictures and writing on a journal what he was feeling at moment made the pleasure last longer. But apart from what was there, Lizzie hadn’t figured anything that could help at all. She was about to put the papers with scanned pages from the diaries when something caught Lizzie’s attention. It was something that a computer program wouldn’t compute as a pattern because it was just random, but Lizzie frowned and then went to another sheet. And there she found it again. A small stain of pen ink in one of the letters. Then another in the other page. Then another. Lizzie was probably crazy if she was starting to make sense of pen inks. She almost shook away this craziness and put away all the papers. But Lizzie wasn’t like that, she couldn’t put things down so she started to read it all over gathering letters and numbers in the order that they appeared. And there is was; after finishing the last journal, the letters formed a note. The same note in each diary._

**_If you found my message, let’s play. Call me in the is number:_ **

_Followed by numbers that were also stained with ink. Lizzie looked at it in amazement. How no one had been able to decode these diaries for eleven years? And how The Writer could be so patient that he waited and waited for someone to find without losing his patience? Lizzie called Hope immediately but Hope didn’t pick up. She tried again and again. She must have been caught in a briefing or interview and couldn’t answer right now. Lizzie tried to wait but the number was just staring at her and honestly, what could happen by just making a phone call?_

_“Hello. This is Safe Dream Storage, how can I help you?” A man asked as soon as he picked up. Lizzie frowned. She hang up and tried to call Hope a couple more of times but Hope still didn’t pick up. Lizzie paced around impatiently. She knew that she should wait for Hope. Lizzie had learned that waiting for Hope was always the best course of action, but Lizzie was curious and she actually wanted to solve everything and be the hero. She quite liked when Hope rolled her eyes at her when Lizzie did something specially clever. So Lizzie did something really stupid; she picked up box with the papers in case she needed it, put it the car and drove to the Safe Dream Storage after searching it on the internet. When she stopped in front of it, she tried to call Hope again. Nothing. Lizzie sighed, picked the box and entered the building._

_“Hello, I’d like to get a Storage room.” Lizzie said when the guy attended her. It was almost 9pm and if he found it weird that a woman was holding a box and wanting to rent a whole storage room just for it, he didn’t show. When he registered her and gave her a key, Lizzie entered the part where the storages rooms were. She knew that if the note had a number that led her here, it should have a number to which storage room. Lizzie went to the one she had just rented and sad on the floor. She scattered the papers and searched again. Her eyes, now trained in ink stains, easily found the number 22. She had already seen it before, of course, but what caught her attention this time was how the stain looked like it was tying both numbers together. Lizzie looked at her key, 41, and then stood up. She walked in the corridor till the door number 22. To her surprise, the key was on the door. Now, she definitely knew she had to run away; everything in her body told her too, but Lizzie was curious and that usually got the best of her so she pushed the door open. She gasped when she looked at it. Pictures everywhere; of happy families before being killed, of places and houses and names. It had everything of the cases here, even pictures that weren’t on the files which indicated that this was the killer’s storage room indeed. A cold enveloped Lizzie’s body as she left the storage room and went back to the attendant guy. She said goodbye and then left to her car nervous as she called Hope that still didn’t pick up. She tried a few more times. When she was about to drive to the FBI’s building to get Hope here, someone grabbed her from behind and she passed out._

* * *

_“Shhh. Don’t cry, baby.” The girl said as she walked. She had been walking for so long that her belly hurt hungry and her arms ached with the weight of the baby. The girl tried not to cry too with the baby. If the Woman woke up, she would be so mad at the girl for leaving with the baby. So the girl walked and walked and walked until her legs gave out and she had to sit on the ground, the baby crying on her lap. Not long after that, a police officer came to talk to her but the girl didn’t say a thing. She didn’t want to tell the Woman’s name because she new he would take her back to the Woman so she stood there without saying a word. After he took both the girl and the baby to the station, the girl met a woman called Rachel that was so nice and gave the girl something to eat. She tried to ask the girl things but the girl said nothing. Rachel then took the girl and the baby to a place where they spent the night with other kids. And then another night. And another. And they didn’t find the Woman to come pick the girl. After days of Rachel trying to talk to the girl, she finally talked for the first time._

_“What’s your name?” Rachel asked._

_“Alyssa.” The girl said. It wasn’t her name. It was her doll’s name; the only doll she had had. But the girl didn’t like her name so she said Alyssa and Rachel believed._

_“Now can you tell me your brother’s name?” Rachel asked. The girl didn’t know. She only called him baby. The Woman also only called it baby. The girl didn’t know so she said the first name she could think of._

_“Pedro.” She said and Rachel smiled again._

_“That’s okay, Alyssa. Everything is going to be okay.” And_ Alyssa _believed._

* * *

“Ink stains on the letters in the diaries.” Lizzie said. “That’s what made me find that number and go to the storage.” Lizzie explained. She waited for Hope to be glad that she had remembered something; that they finally had a clue. Not that it was a clue really; when the FBI searched the storage, they had found the one with the pictures and victims so they knew why Lizzie was there when she was kidnapped. The only thing they didn’t know was how Lizzie got that information; her box with her annotations had been stolen. But now that Lizzie had looked at all this again after all these years, pieces had started to come to place. Not that Lizzie had stopped looking throughout the years, but her mind wasn’t really ready to do this. It wasn’t ready now as she read it but the fear of something happening with Hope, the kids or her mom and sister was bigger than the fear of remembering everything that had really happened and suffering it all over again. But that was exactly what Hope’s face promised when she entered her office. Lizzie frowned when she noticed the diary on her hand. Hope extended it for Lizzie to take. Lizzie knew it would be something bad, so crushingly terrifying that Hope was looking at Lizzie as if she were going to break in front of her. Lizzie opened it and let it fall to the ground when Lizzie saw the first picture. It was like it was burning. “He made a diary for me?” Lizzie whispered and Hope nodded. Lizzie looked at it. “I don’t wanna see it.”

“You have to.” Hope said and Lizzie could feel the self-hate on her voice for making Lizzie go through this.

“I don’t want to.” Lizzie whispered again. Hope picked up the journal from the floor and then helped Lizzie to sit on the chair.

“I don’t want you to do it either. I did and I can’t even convey how angry I am at what happened, Lizzie. But you were the one that noticed the code on the others.” Hope said pushing the journal on Lizzie’s hands. “I won’t leave your side.” Hope said. Lizzie didn’t point out that it didn’t matter that Hope was there because Lizzie’s mind could create demons enough that Hope wouldn’t even be aware of even standing besides Lizzie all the time.

So Lizzie read and each page made her anger and sadder and more broken than she already was before. She read descriptions and looked at pictures. Sometimes Hope had to turn the page to take Lizzie’s attention from a particular picture that brought memories to Lizzie. At least she had the answer she had been afraid to have after all these years: no, it wasn’t Lizzie. Any of the scars. Lizzie hadn’t made none of them by herself. It was all his fault. That made anger build inside Lizzie in a way that had never happened before. When she read the last sentence, the one promising more pain, what Lizzie felt wasn’t fear but rather a hatred so intense that Lizzie felt herself _drowning in fire._

She looked again for the stained letters and after gathering all of them, she got the simple note:

**_Ready for round two? I want you to meet me here. Tic tac. Clock’s ticking._ **

Accompanied by an address. That simple; that bold. Lizzie again thought about how confident this man was in his own abilities that he would give an address. He knew that if Lizzie were able to decode his journal like she had done on the first time, the place would be filled with cops and agents faster than he could imagine. But that was the thing, he did imagine. He knew what to wait, which meant he had a plan.

“We have to go.” Lizzie said, anger speaking louder than anything else.

“You won’t go, no. We’ll go and you’ll stay here, Lizzie. I won’t risk it.” Hope said and Lizzie pushed her hand when Hope tried to touch her.

“I will go. This is me here on this diary.” Lizzie said opening it and showing one of the pictures to Hope that grimaced. “Me, being cut and scared and hopeless. So you can’t tell me what I can’t do.” Lizzie said watching Hope breathe and then nod reluctantly. She knew better than trying to tell Lizzie what to do. When they were about to leave the building after talking with the agents that would accompany them to the place, Josie met them.

“I don’t care where you’re going. I’m coming too.” She said and Lizzie also knew better than trying to say no to her sister even if she wanted. To be honest, Lizzie was barely thinking straight; she was watching this happening around her through lens made of fear, anger and tiredness. The address wasn’t away but all the way there, Lizzie’s mind screamed that something was wrong; too easy. It was an abandoned building.

“He wants me to go in.” Lizzie said as she watched the other agents walk around looking for something.

“You won’t go in.” Hope said horrified.

“Of course I won’t, Hope. Do you think that I’m stupid? That I want to meet him again?” Lizzie snapped. She regretted before the words left her mouth, though. Hope flinched. “I’m sorry- I just…”

“That’s okay.” Hope said shaking her head. It wasn’t fair of Lizzie to throw it all over Hope but Hope was there; the only one that had really always been there; and Lizzie was just very angry. She hated being angry. She hurt people when she was angry. Anger also made her violent. “Maya is searching for cameras around here to see if we can get any image from inside before entering.” Hope informed looking at her phone with a frown.

“What is it?” Lizzie asked.

“Rachel. She had been calling me since I woke up but with all of this happening, I didn’t picked up. She’s still calling me. I guess she wants to talk about the hearing 2 days from now. I can call her later.” Hope said pressing end call. Lizzie had a bad feeling. Something was going to happen; everything since the yesterday had been like a crescendo that had been building until the perfect moment. Lizzie felt like a piece in a game that she didn’t know how to play; that she didn’t need to know how to play because it was being played for her.

“Call her back, Hope.” Lizzie said and her voice had worry enough that Hope didn’t question it. She watched as Hope’s face changed to heartbreak in front of Lizzie. Lizzie’s own heart almost broke waiting for whatever bad news Hope was about to tell.

“It’s Alyssa.” Hope said and Lizzie stopped breathing.

“What happened?” Lizzie asked.

“Her mother is back. She’s at the FBI. She wants her back. She’s taking her back right now. Rachel called me to say that I need to go there immediately before they take Alyssa.” Hope said and Lizzie knew, with all her bones, that he was responsible for this too; for bringing Alyssa’s mom back.

“What?” Josie asked stunned. “Oh my god. You have to go right now, Hope.” Josie said taking the words that Lizzie hadn’t been brave enough to say. She nodded.

“You can’t let them take Alyssa.” Lizzie whispered. She didn’t mention to Hope her instinctive certainty that _he_ had something to do with it. Lizzie watched as Hope shook her head.

“Come with me.” She asked but Lizzie knew she had to be here; she knew she they were like pieces in a board being set in their designated places and Lizzie was scared of trying to change it and end up screwing up even more.

“I have to stay here. See what’s going to happen next.” Lizzie said.

“I’ll stay with her. Go, Hope.” Josie said walking a little away from them to give them a little privacy.

“I don’t wanna leave you.” Hope whispered with a frail voice and Lizzie had to use all her willpower not to let herself break.

“You have to. I couldn’t bare to lose Alyssa.” Lizzie said kissing Hope’s forehead. “She’s our girl.” She said so low that Hope may hadn’t even heard.

“You do know I love you.” Hope said and it was more than just saying; Hope was stating that Lizzie knew that. Lizzie nodded. She watched as Hope left. Josie stood next to her while they waited for Maya to hack the electronic locks on the door to let the agents in. Lizzie knew she was missing something. She heard the sound of a clock at distance and it made her remember the note. _Tic Tac. Clock’s ticking. Tic Tac._ Lizzie looked at how a group of five agents waited by the door as Maya connected a wire to the door’s electronic system. _Tic Tac_. Lizzie was missing something. It was something about the noise.

“It’s going to be okay.” Josie said, mistaking Lizzie’s anxiousness for fear. _Okay, ten seconds._ She heard Maya saying and her eyes snapped to the woman. Maya had meant ten seconds for the door to open but that made another thought altogether pop into Lizzie’s head. _Tic Tac_.

“A bomb.” She whispered and then screamed. “Get away from the door. There’s a bomb.” But it was too late. Lizzie was thrown back by the force of the explosion, her head hitting the floor and a sharp pain taking over her. She tried to reach for her sister but one of the agents that had been away from the explosion was now helping her to get up. He put her in the car. Lizzie was about to object telling him to go check on Josie, when she felt a sting on her arm and then everything started to go dark. Just before she passed out, she heard.

“Thank you for helping me.”

* * *

Hope drove like a mad woman. She was at the bureau less then 10 minutes later. She had called her aunt Freya while she drove to ask her to come to the FBI to help Hope. Freya was a lawyer and if this were something legal, Freya could solve it for sure. But Freya didn’t pick up. When Hope arrived at Lizzie’s office, Rachel was there. So was a woman that looked exactly like Alyssa and two men.

“What is happening?” Hope asked.

“This is my daughter.” The woman that looked like Alyssa said pointing at the girl. “I’m here to take her with me.”

“You can’t do that. She can’t do that.” Hope said looking at Rachel. Rachel showed her the papers. The woman had opened a custody replacement requirement. “What does this mean?” Hope asked coming close to Alyssa that was quiet and staring at the woman, her mother apparently, with scared eyes. She took Hope’s hand when Hope stopped next to her.

“It means that you can’t go on with Alyssa’s adoption. She has to be returned to the mother.” Rachel said as if she were surprised herself.

“How did she applied for custody and I didn’t learn about it?” Hope asked trying to think of something that would help.

“I have no idea. I was Alyssa and Pedro’s social worker. I should have been informed of it.” Rachel said.

“Her name is not Alyssa. It’s Grace.” The woman said and Hope felt Alyssa trembling. She was terrified of it, of her.

“I wont let you take her.” Hope said.

“That’s why I brough these two police officers with me. They’re here to make sure I walk home with my daughter today. It's my right.” The woman said, a smirk on her lips. How couldn’t anyone see that that woman was bad? Hope tried to call her aunt again and this time she picked up.

“Aunt Freya, I need your help. Aly-” But her aunt stopped her with her coughing. “What’s wrong?” Hope asked, a cold wave coming up her spine.

“The house. It’s on fire.” Freya answered between coughs. Hope inhaled.

“What? Is everyone okay?” Hope asked, the first pieces that held her together finally starting to fall apart. Hope didn’t get to hear because the next thing she saw took her breath away from her. Josie coming to her crying and all covered in blood.

“She’s gone, Hope. It was a trap. A bomb.” Josie said sobbing. “Maya, the captain- They're dead.”

“Lizzie?” Hope asked, her heart fearing the answer.

“She wasn’t there when I recovered. I- She was taken, Hope. Again.” Josie said the words that finally knocked down Hope’s house of cards. Everything. Hope had no idea how everything had turned out so messy so fast. 24 hours since they had found out Pedro’s arms painted. 24 hours that changed it all. Caroline, that had been inside one of the rooms with the rest of the kids, probably heard Josie because she came running and started to cry when she saw her daughter all covered in blood and no sign of her other daughter. Hope watched as Pedro ran for her, fear in his little eyes as he watched his scared sister and crying Josie and Caroline.

“Time to go.” Alyssa’s mother said and Alyssa started crying.

“No, please. Don’t let her take me. You sad you’re my mom. Please don’t let her take me.” Alyssa started to cry, holding onto Hope for dear life. Hope held her but she knew that there was nothing she could do. If she didn’t let Alyssa’s mom take her, she could go to jail and there was the last place Hope should be right now. She looked at Alyssa.

“Sweetie, I have to-” but Alyssa didn’t let her finish.

“No, no, no. Please, mom, let me stay. I just want to stay with you. Let me stay with you, mom.”

“She’s not your mom.” The woman said what caused Alyssa’s sob to become louder. The woman made a sign for the police to take Alyssa. “It’s time to go home to your real mom.”

That couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. That was the only reason that the fact that Hope felt so detached, so unnervingly powerless could be explained. Hope watched as if from above her body as Josie fell to the ground, blood all over her; as Alyssa kicked and screamed and fought tooth and nails to run away from the man holding her; as Pedro cried and pulled Hope’s hand trying to make her move, make her save them all pleading _‘mommy, please, mommy’_. Some part of Hope noticed that it was the first time he ever called her mommy but that part was numbed too. So she watched as all the people she loved were being taken away from her. And she did nothing. And for the first time on her life, Hope had lost everything without even getting the chance to fight. So Hope finally let herself break. The only thought in her head was _how did she manage to fuck it all up so bad?_ Then she heard her phone ringing on the floor where it had fallen. Hope didn't know why but she picked up and read the text that was written:

**_Merry Christmas_ **

_**-The Writer**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SEE YOU NEXT SEASON.


	9. Season Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LINK TO SEASON TWO

Okay, guys. Let's do this again?

Check it out the first chapter of the season two.

I hope you like it.

I've decided to put it here so people that are reading could get a notification that another chapter is out.

I WANT YOU ALL TO LOVE IT AND CONTINUE TO READ MY THINGS

I LOVE YOU

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885429/chapters/62900992

**Author's Note:**

> DON'T FORGET THE COMMENTS. THEY ARE MY FUEL.


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